This year will mark the 130th Newtown carnival and a local history group wants to hear your views on carnivals that you have been involved in over the years.
According to Newtown Local History Group the first recorded carnival in Newtown was in 1887 and it marked the Knighthood of town entrepreneur and businessman, Pryce Jones, who launched the world’s first mail order company based at The Royal Welsh Warehouse.
“Carnival conjures up visions of colour, the sound of music and people having fun. According to where you live in the world carnivals have become an annual celebration of life where communities gather together and includes fancy dress, parades, carnival processions and carnival queens,” said Ann Evans, secretary of the history group.
“The First recorded Carnival in Newtown was held in 1887 to celebrate the Knighthood of Pryce Jones. For this occasion there were over 5,000 spectators who paid 6d to enter the carnival field. The event included music, dance, acrobats and various shows.”
The first recorded carnival queen for Newtown was Edith Bayley in 1929, as seen in the photograph.
On Saturday, 13 May a special event will be held at The Monty Club in Broad Street to celebrate 130 years of carnivals in the town and to highlight memories and celebrate peoples memories, as well as a host of events and activities for people to enjoy.
Newtown Local History Group would like to share your memories and pictures of the carnivals of the past to record these for future generations and eventually produce a new carnival publication.
“This will be also be an opportunity for previous carnival queens to unite for a celebration from Newtown and other carnival queens from throughout Montgomeryshire,” added Ann.
There will be a Childrens Carnival Tea Party from 12noon with a film slide show and photo booths with props to make history on the day.
There will be a representative from the Newtown Library to demonstrate “Peoples Collection Wales” facility to record family photos and for local community groups to record their picture collections.
The event will take place between 11am and 4pm.
Meanwhile, this year’s Newtown Carnival will take place on 10 June, with the annual parade of floats and events and activities also planned in the Town Hall Grounds.
