As a child in the sixties, I remember Hitchin Carnival as
quite a spectacular event. I would stand with my parents and sister and enjoy a
very elaborate array of floats coming through the town. Smiling, dressed-up folks would walk by shaking tins for charity donations.
However, I recall, too, hiding behind my dad when people walked by wearing enormous
painted heads. Does anyone else remember them? They freaked me out when I was little!
In 1970, I was a mini-majorette, and remember having just
come through an appendix operation, and finding it quite hard to keep twirling and walking. So I got a lift from Letchworth to Hitchin on one of the floats. We all ended up on Butts Close, and prizes would be given for the best
floats. It was a great occasion, with lots of floats entering.
What I found really interesting, when reading Ron Pigram’s
book Strange Happenings in Hitchin &
North Herts, was that a hundred years before I was a mini-majorette; Hitchin Carnival was an even more spectacular occasion. Someone wrote at the
time ‘It is certainly very strange, that such a normally prim and quiet town
(Hitchin) should erupt in this wild fashion on one night in the year.’
The carnival would take place around Guy Fawkes’ night, and
each year the festival would try to outdo the one the year before.
In the late eighteen hundreds it would be a patriotic event,
and in 1870 it was normal for men to play females in the theatre. A rather
large man called Herbert Barham played Britannia, and sat on the ceremonial
float. It went well until, when entering Hitchin Market Square, a low-lying
telegraph wire caught him round the neck – and over the side went Britannia.
The events would be expensive and collections were carried
out. Some wanted to stop the festival because it disturbed the quiet of
Hitchin, which had been given the nickname ‘Sleepy Hollow’ but still
the festivals continued.
The festivals included an afternoon procession of floats.
Until dusk Hitchin’s Market Square was filled with boys watching excitedly as
poles with firework displays were mounted into position.
As night came, special
lights around the town were lit, and the air was filled with the sound of
exploding firecrackers. Men and boys would swing fireballs which gave out an
unpleasant gas which lit the faces of the sightseers with coloured light. The
last festival in this style took place in 1881, which was probably the best of
them all. There were hot-air balloons, and the bands included ‘the remains of
the Edinburgh Tattoo.
There are some great pictures of Hitchin Carnival from 1966-1972 HERE
&
HERE
And a photo of the Hitchin Band in the 2000 Carnival
HERE
Amanda Brittany
***
If you like reading pyschological thrillers Amanda Brittany has written two books: HER LAST LIE features Hitchin and other local towns, and all eBook royalties are being donated to Cancer Research UK in memory of her sister.
TELL THE TRUTH is available to pre-order and is out in December in eBook & audiobook, and in paperback in February 2019
The link to buy is
HERE