Forth-Coming Events

Guy Fawkes
5th November 2011
Location: Starting in The Square and then at the Green

Christmas Carols
10th December 2011
Location: The Square

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Races
Tuesday 21st February 2012
Location: The Square

Easter Saturday Duck Race
Saturday 7th April 2012
Location: River Yar, Yarmouth

Carnival Week 2012
18th - 25th August 2012
Location: Various around Yarmouth

A Hundred Years of Yarmouth Carnival

2010 Centenary Year

Photos to follow

The Freshwater, Totland and Yarmouth Advertiser of September 7th, 1901 already describes the Yarmouth Regatta as 'time-honoured' and we know that it was honoured by royalty too, as Princess Beatrice's portrait in the Yacht Club (painted by member Sir Arthur Cope, a keen competitor) makes clear. Although primarily for sailing boats such as the Solent Sea Birds, there were races for 'four-oared' Coastguard galleys from Beaulieu, Lymington, Yarmouth and Cowes, which ‘won easily’. In addition, pair-oared boys ‘rowed pluckily and (were) to be commended for their sportive skill’. The boys’ swimming races included two Harwoods, a Burt and a Holland – but no girls competed! This early version of Harbour Sports had its lighter side, with a Greasy Pole and Duck Hunt. Don’t be confused with our modern Easter Duck Race – in 1901 the ‘poor old duck’ was a Corporal Stenning who lost both oars and boat while being pursued ‘in and out of the water!’

In the evening, ‘the fun waxed fast and furious’, the Square being thronged with people enjoying the coconut shies, dancing and the steam roundabout, ‘Bakers Galloping Horses’, which were lit by naptha flares. ‘We expect the little town will spend a merry evening’ predicted the Advertiser: and they did.

By 1905, we see ladies competing in a Pair-Oared race, and besides the evidently popular Duck Hunt, there is also a Swimming Race for dogs and a Tub Race for boys (probably the precursor of our paddle race). The subheading for 1908’s article was ‘Keen Competition but Wretched Weather’ (to be repeated in 2008!). Even Baker’s switchback and side-shows could not make up for the heavy rain, but at least that year the Yarmouth boat won the Four-Oared Galley Race.

1911 marks the start of the Carnival Procession – after the by now usual dinghy races following the Regatta, dozens of torchbearers accompanied: Miss Buxton, an Egyptian water-carrier; Miss Urry, Japanese girl; Miss Bright, gollywog; Miss May, bluebell; Dan Sebborn, Red Indian; H Doe, clown and among other, W Doe whose costume obviously flummoxed the reporter who put down ‘nondescript’! These individuals all processed down the High Street, ending in The Square ‘where dancing was indulged in, and fun was rampant, everyone seemingly being out for the sole purpose of enjoying themselves ….’ as if Carnival is for any other purpose?

This decade also marks the first appearance of the Carnival Queen, decked in ermine just like the dignified and popular Queen Alexandra, widow of Edward VII.

The programme for the Yarmouth Regatta of 1921 includes, poignantly, a Pair-Oared Race for Ex-Service men. Competitors included names which also appear on the War Memorials in Yarmouth and Freshwater: Doe, Pitman, Kelleway and Cotton. It is unlikely that there was much carnival spirit during the Great War and indeed we have no evidence of it. More happily, some familiar names appear in the Yarmouth One Design class – you can still see Francesca, Diatom, Genista, Blandina and Puffin bobbing on their moorings in front of the Yacht Club. There were also Men’s, Boys' and Girls' swimming races (note no Ladies’) and Walking the Greasy Pole (my – this is well-nigh impossible). A Motor-Boat race also appears. These sports were not in the Harbour but off the Common, where the finale was a Tug-of-War for all comers, eight a side – with ‘Substantial money prizes’.

We are fortunate in having two memories of the Carnival in the late 20’s: Kenneth Dence was dressed as a naval cadet on a patriotic float featuring Britannia, which won first prize in 1928.

Like many island boys, he joined the Royal Navy and served for thirty years. He remembers the dancing, but it was ‘horrible dancing on tarmac’ – since Ken still dances weekly, now in Ryde, he is more discriminating that most!

Effie Pitman has lived in Yarmouth all her life and as a small girl, features in a group with a model of Yarmouth’s early motor BASP lifeboat, built in 1924. Over 40 years as Brown Owl, Effie made a carnival float for Yarmouth’s Brownies, producing costumes on a shoestring: ‘One year I had 24 Brownies and the whole thing cost me a packet of drawing pins – that was 4d in old money!’ She never told the parents what the theme was; the girls were expected to create for themselves, an admirable approach which shows Effie’s resourcefulness and anticipated today’s rediscovery of ‘make do and mend’. You can see another of her floats in the 1980’s.

The photographs of the 1930’s begin to show the variety of costumes made by individuals and groups: Jim Ryall leads a very impressive sea monster through the streets of Newport in 1934, having won first prize at Yarmouth, while the next year, a cow is brought to the Yarmouth Carnival rather than the County Show.

And the group photographs show plenty of imagination too, with a bride, jockey, soldier, etc, all posing on the Recreation Ground (where the procession started) or opposite the Institute. (Yarra Braes is now Ivy Cottage.)

The 1940’s saw considerable competition for the honour of being Carnival Queen. The selection process took place in the Conservative Club and the Queen had a crowning ceremony, which by 1950 was a public affair, on the Common.

There was competition, too, to guess the identities of the men of the Carnival Committee who, heavily disguised, would peep over the wall in front of the old Harbour Lights café. They weren’t allowed to speak, as all the locals would know them from their voices. Sue Russell remembers being quite unable to recognise her own father, Harold Hayles.

The Harbour has changed a great deal from the 1950’s, as can be seen in the photograph of Jimmy Tanner and John Lepard resting on their oars after one of those races. The slipway has rotated ninety degrees, and nowadays yachts moor alongside the wall, but there is still plenty of ferry traffic.

The quay is lined with dinghies, not only the locals’ but of the many visiting families who used to live all summer in their boats in Yarmouth. Those were idyllic holidays, and it seemed no hardship to row through the Harbour to collect water in jerry cans from the taps on the quay, or indeed to ferry your father ashore to return to the mainland. One young mother was heard to remark on the sigh of relief that went around the Harbour on Monday mornings as the men went back to work! There was often good natured rivalry between the ‘yachties’ and the locals in the field sports, held first on the Common and then at the ‘Rec’, and not a few marriages between a ‘child of the harbour’ and a local boy or girl. One regular visitor, very successful in the London rag trade, said she was more tickled to be asked to be a judge of the costumes in the Carnival than of any other fashions!

1969 and 1970 saw the great Isle of Wight Festivals, to the alarm of some of the more stuffy elements in Yarmouth; one old buffer was heard to express his astonishment that not a single dinghy had been taken from the dozens tied to the quay steps. I don’t think it occurred to him that long-haired (and mildly stoned) hippies preferred to take the ferry home rather than a boat they probably couldn’t row … and in any case, they had a fearsome Festival Guard Dog to put them off.

Having been long banned, the Festival is of course now back, as are the road works (a perennial source of grumbling among islanders!) here shown on a float from 1970. Anniversaries were popular in this year; the Red Cross and Women’s Institute represent voluntary work. On a lighter note, the ‘Clangers’ and ‘John and Yoko’ are very much of their time.

Also topical is ‘Morning Cloud’, an ingenious tribute to Edward Heath’s victorious yacht in 1976, made by the Smith family from an old pram! (Gives a whole new meaning to ‘pram dinghy’.)

Dinghies are being launched from the old slipway made of rectangular setts, while the old lifeboat can be seen behind the Dirty Shirt racers.

Another picture shows a mixture of traditional dinghies and ‘rub-a-dubs’ the length of the town quay, with a side view of the slipway. In an effort to keep up with the times, there was a skateboard competition in 1978, but the balloon chase around the harbour had to specify ‘not motors’! The Dog Show, now on the Green, was then held in the garden of The Deacons against a panoramic backdrop of the Solent.

‘Dynasty’ style dresses and big hair? It must be the 1980’s and these Queens may be rather hot underneath their shoulder-pads.

Also in the 1989’s is a goodbye to the old Yar Bridge but a celebration of the continuing success of the West Wight Scow Class, which had moved from the Yacht Club to the new Sailing Club in the old Toll House on the Bridge. The setts have been replaced by piles, but there is still no pontoon or lifeboat dock. In 1985, a group of shivering little swimmers are fresh from their races off the Sandhard, but this venue was soon abandoned – perhaps they got caught up in all the weed! Weed is also one of the hazards of the crabbing competition. This event, particularly popular with small children, used to take place on the pier. Now, the harbour wall is a regular venue, and the pots here provide a weary dad with a handy (if smelly) backrest. The fishing competition, still from the pier, is a very serious matter for the dozens of keen local men (and more and more women) whose catches are always recorded in the County Press.

The 1990’s were a quieter period for the Carnival, which at one point took place over the three days of the August Bank Holiday. During these years many houses in the town changed out of local hands and there also seemed to be fewer families in the harbour. Fortunately, however, and due to the combined energies of locals born and bred together with quite a few ‘yachties’ who have retired to their favourite harbour, Yarmouth Carnival has revived and improved in the new century. There is more for small children; to the ever-popular crabbing has been added the Teddy Bears’ Picnic and the painting competitions. The Mallishag has replaced the Carnival Queen and there is a ‘Spirit of Yarmouth Carnival’ cup award.

Rock-pooling at Fort Victoria is fun as well as educational, and the window-spotting, quizzes and limerick competitions keep families’ brains working all week. We can also admire the skills of the crew of our Lifeboat (named after the famous sailing couple, Eric and Susan Hiscock, whose house is in Yarmouth.

So Yarmouth Carnival endures, offering not just a week of celebration of our lovely little town to visitors, yachties and locals. The Carnival Committee meets year-round and organises other events, which embrace and enhance the community: Pancake Races, the Easter Duck Race in the river, the Guy Fawkes fireworks, Carol Concert in The Square and the Senior Citizens' Christmas Lunch. Dozens of people are involved and there is a tremendous amount of organisation, settings-up and permissions to get – all done by volunteers – before any of these events can go ahead. So as we rattle our buckets, please remember this effort and give generously while you enjoy our Carnival.