Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 2267 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| HEBDEN BRIDGE CARNIVAL | 1925 | 1925-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 35mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 2 mins 20 secs |
| Summary This is a short film of a boisterous carnival in Hebden Bridge in 1924 and provides a good example of the types of carnivals that were common during the 1920s. The film documents some of the celebrations of the day. |
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Description
This is a short film of a boisterous carnival in Hebden Bridge in 1924 and provides a good example of the types of carnivals that were common during the 1920s. The film documents some of the celebrations of the day.
The film opens with a group of people all of whom are dressed in hats and coats and standing along the side of a street. Some of the women in the front are larking about with balloons, party blowers/ticklers and streamers. A narrow street in the town is decorated...
This is a short film of a boisterous carnival in Hebden Bridge in 1924 and provides a good example of the types of carnivals that were common during the 1920s. The film documents some of the celebrations of the day.
The film opens with a group of people all of whom are dressed in hats and coats and standing along the side of a street. Some of the women in the front are larking about with balloons, party blowers/ticklers and streamers. A narrow street in the town is decorated with bunting which stretches across from one building top to another. There are also Union Jack flags on display. Crowds line both sides of the street as a motorcyclist makes his way down the middle. A group of men walk down the street, and a poster on the wall of the White Swan Hotel advertises a ‘Carnival Ball’ at Victoria Hall. A group of people outside a hat shop look at the camera.
The parade slowly makes its way along the high street. The parade is led by a man riding a horse and a brass band whose members are wearing silly hats. Streamers and confetti are thrown onto the parade which consists of a few different floats and acts including a pantomime elephant and a man with a blackened face that do a dance. In the background are a couple of schoolboys with scooters. Following the elephant is a horse-drawn float. Riding on the float are two small boys – one dressed as a soldier and the other as a sailor – a cuddly lion, and a woman dressed as Britannia who is seated in front of a Union Jack. This float is followed by a parade of open-topped cars, all covered in streamers. A group of clowns go by, one of whom is riding a donkey.
This film is a short excerpt from a longer film featuring more of the day's celebrations which can be found http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/hebden-bridge-carnival-and-gala
Context
This film is one of a number of films made of Hebden Bridge carnivals in the still relatively early years of film making. These films would have been shown at the Royal Electric Theatre, a timber building on New Road, Hebden Bridge. City and town carnivals were often filmed at this time: the YFA has several other films of carnivals from this period: Elland Carnivals Of Yester Years (Leeds, 1926), Eccleshill Carnival, (Bradford, 1922), and Thirsk Carnival (1921). Usually, as with this film,...
This film is one of a number of films made of Hebden Bridge carnivals in the still relatively early years of film making. These films would have been shown at the Royal Electric Theatre, a timber building on New Road, Hebden Bridge. City and town carnivals were often filmed at this time: the YFA has several other films of carnivals from this period: Elland Carnivals Of Yester Years (Leeds, 1926), Eccleshill Carnival, (Bradford, 1922), and Thirsk Carnival (1921). Usually, as with this film, the identity of the makers has been lost in the mists of time. As well as Carnivals, Maydays and Whit processions were also filmed, the former often being the occasion for the town carnival. Even though filming real life scenes was fairly common by this time, it is still noticeable the way that carnival spectators glare at the camera as it moves across the crowd, whilst yet others seem to act quite naturally.
The film shows how little Hebden Bridge has changed over the passing years: the White Swan is still there and Bridge Gate looks little different from today. Even some of the shops seen in the film are still there, albeit selling different kinds of goods. However, the houses in the background where the carnival passes by, where Bridge Gate meets New Road, have since been demolished. The holding of a gala and parade to raise money for local hospitals was an annual event in Edwardian Hebden Bridge. In Looking Back at Hebden Bridge, Frank Horsfall and Terry Wyke state that, ‘the local newspaper lamented that the "time-honoured custom" of carters decorating their wagons and horses on May day was less in evidence in the district.’ Well, it is certainly in evidence in this film. Coincidentally, a carter, as well as being someone who drives a cart, is also an old name for a clown. The book also has photos of parades and a procession in Bridge Lane from around 1911. The processions usually went as far as Whiteley Arches before turning round to make the journey back through the town to Calder Holmes, where refreshment and games were organised. The historical roots of carnivals are rather convoluted and sometimes obscure: reaching back to early pagan festivals, and court ritual or festival dances, to name but two strands. The carnivals that carried over from the nineteenth century contain elements that have various sources, from old morris dances, plough dances and mummer plays, going back to the fifteenth century, to late Victorian pantomime influences. Some of the ancient seasonal motifs of cross-dressing, absurd comedy and dressing up as animals are to be seen in the Hebden Bridge carnival. None of this has any specifically Christian significance, even though the word carnival derives from 'carne' (meaning meat) and 'vale' (meaning farewell), revealing a source in 15th Century Italy, to celebrate the last day before Lent (Shrove Tuesday or Mardis Gras). The word has long been used to describe any public celebration or entertainment which includes a fancy dress procession through the streets. Many traditional customs, like May Day, morris dancing and carnivals, have been encouraged for contrasting ideological reasons. Many of these customs were vanishing before being resurrected by those wishing to develop a sense of community and harmony. This happened during the economic and political upheavals following the Napoleonic War, when old ceremonies and customs were seen as a way of promoting national identity and unity. However, these same traditions were also taken up by romantics and socialists later on in Queen Victoria’s reign; who saw them in a quite different light. (Yet another set of beliefs motivated Rolf Gardiner, who coined the name of ‘morris dancers’ in the 1930s, and who saw them as representing the kind of nationalism and male dominance then taking over in Germany at that time). These contradictory aspects of carnivals can often be seen in the processions, including the one in this film, where images of British Empire mix with comedic characters which can poke fun at established institutions and customs. The creation of nonconformist and playful characters are a central part of carnivals, and they provide a space for the eccentric individual and the traditional to mix together. One of the origins of the carnival, the Feast of Fools, is a burlesque of sacred ceremonies; and this characteristic of parodying orthodox beliefs and activities has carried on side by side with more orthodox elements like the Salvation Army brass bands. In this film, the character in the parade with the blackened face – which were common at carnivals at this time – goes back to the middle ages, possibly depicting non-Christian Arabs (hence also the possible derivation of the name ‘morris’ for early ceremonial rituals: from ‘Moorish’ Spain). Carnivals are times for communities to come together, but they can also have a more subversive character, allowing the underclass a free rein that wouldn’t normally be accepted. At the time of the film Hebden Bridge was a small wool town, still producing woollen goods before the decline of the wool trade. But the influx of a new kind of creative resident in the 1960s and ‘70s has kept the carnival going, providing a focus for artistic and musical talent, and doubtless it will continue to live on, mutating to produce new, entertaining and provocative characters. [With special thanks to Diana Monahan of Hebden Bridge Local History Society who helped in providing information] References Frank Horsfall and Terry Wyke, Looking Back at Hebden Bridge, Willow Publishing, Timperley, 1986. Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford University Press, 1996. Charles Knightly, The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain, Thames and Hudson, London, 1986. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and his world, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Hebden Bridge website This website has lots of photos of recent carnivals. |
