Figure 1.--This postcard-back photograph is undated, but was taken in the 1910s between 1911-18. We know that because it has a ½d George V postage stamp. The children look to be celebrating a festival of some kind, probably a farm fesival because the one boy is wearing a farmer's smock. The girls are wering bonnets suggesting the erly-19th century. The other boys are wearng regular suits, but the hats they are holding suggest a costume. The event was in Saiisbury. A message on the back affressedv to a Miss E. Wigmore reads, "Dear E, thought you would like this as your old chum is on it. Mrs. YLE Green". (The lst name is indistinfct.) They are from Sklidbury. This is a medieval cathedral city in the southern English county of Wiltshire close to Stonehenge.

There are many festivals in England celebrting historical events or times. And England has plenty of history to celebrate. , Costumes often play a role in these celebrations. England's long history offers enormous posibilities for these festivals and celebrations. There are countless towns and villages that sponsor festivals of various sizes. Some are well known. Most are puely local evens. These are particularly popular during the summer when people can enjoy outings in the nice weather. Some are unusual involving product for which the community is famous for or a noted event. Both hisoricasl events and ecomomuic trditions are celebrted. Unfortuntely while we have found numerous images, often the particular festival or event is not noted. All we have are the costumes the children are wearing. The girls seem to take the costuming a little more seriously than the boys who seem less excited about dressing up.

Clitheroe Cotton Festival

Cliteroe is a charming little market town in Lancshire bd they had an annul Cotton Festival. This may seem a liitke strnge because not one cotton ball grows in Lancashire or for that matter all of Britain. But the Indutrial Revolution began in Britain (mid-18th century) and it was based on textiles. Englbnd;s medieval economy was centered on the wool trade and eventually wool textiles. But to mechnize production you needed a cheaper raw material and this would be cotton. The manufacturing of cotton textiles boomed with power-looms. The machinery was turned first by huge iron water wheels and evebtually steam engines. To the north of Clitheroe there was a vast limestone bed which fed kilns that supplied energy to the mills. By the mid-19thb century there were 2,300 mills in Lancaster alone. Almost all the cotton came from America. Some 70 percent of the American citton crop was exorted to Britain. Lacashire was the cotton capital of the world. When the Civil War broke out in America (1861-65), the Federal naval blockade caused a Cotton Famine in Britain. But into the 20th century, cotton textiles as an imprtant bopar of the Btitish economy. and we see coyyon festivals in several like Clitheroe. We note a celebration in 1935. There is the Queen and two page boys . They participate in the town procession in which the Cotton Queen is crowned, It was a town celebration with a procession of floats, individuals in fancy costumes, bands and uniformed organisations. The Queen is holding an imprtant piece of cotton weavers equipment -- the shuttle. With the decline of the textikle industry in Britain, the festival is no longer celebrated.

Unidentified Farm Festival

This postcard-back photograph here is undated, but was taken in the 1910s between 1911-18 (figure 1). We know that because it has a ½d George V postage stamp. The children look to be celebrating a festival of some kind, probably a farm fesival because the one boy is wearing a farmer's smock. The girls are wering bonnets suggesting the erly-19th century. The other boys are wearng regular suits, but the hats they are holding suggest a costume. The event was in Saiisbury. A message on the back affressedv to a Miss E. Wigmore reads, "Dear E, thought you would like this as your old chum is on it. Mrs. YLE Green". (The lst name is indistinfct.) They are from Sklidbury. This is a medieval cathedral city in the southern English county of Wiltshire close to Stonehenge.

Created: 9:59 AM 3/6/2022
Last updated: 9:59 AM 3/6/2022