This film was made in July 1948. It shows the annual carnival which was organised by the British Legion. The first shots show the carnival procession emerging from Farrar Lane onto Calverley Road opposite St. John’s School and Volter’s shop which is now the “Calm” beauty parlour. Later scenes are on the Croft field which was given over to housing in the 1960s.
Featured in the film is the comic band which regularly took part in events in Oulton and Woodlesford. Many in the band were ex-servicemen. They also used to go from pub to pub performing and collecting money for the Legion which had an ambition to build a permanent club house to replace a temporary wooden hut in the field next to the Oulton Institute.
Judging for the Legion Queen and her retinue took place at a meeting in May 1948 with impartial judges invited from from Leeds. The Wakefield Express reported that the 1947 carnival had been a “great success” with the committee working hard to “improve the arrangements for a similar success.”
If you recognise anybody in this film or have any stories please email: bensoh10@woodlesfordstation.co.uk
1. Junction Calverley Road and Aberford Road. School. Crowd on pavement. Prams.
2. Car right to left. 2 women with child holding hands come from Farrar Lane. 2 cyclists right to left.
3. Comic band. Man or woman with labels on costume. 2 girls, 2 boys. Man with trilby.
4. 2 girls in white costume. Diane Pearce on left as a wedding cake. Irene Hale on right. Father was Clarence Hale, a miner at Water High.
5. Same 2 girls.
6. Red Indian. Crowd in background. 2 women walk to camera.
7. Red Indian, hands crossed.man passes holding trophy.
8. Wide shot, men in caps.
9. Ernest Parkinson, in dark suit, and boy walk towards camera. West Riding bus? Car.
10. Britannia: Elsie Naylor.Woman and pageboy in white with her. Policeman.
11. CU Legion Queen: Shirley Ashley and her attendant; Shirley Benson.
12. Man in road, with back to camera. Page boy: David Tiffany (lived John O’Gaunts estate) and girls. Woman with train, holding flowers and sash. Woman in skirt supervises. Young man crosses right to left. Old man in flat cap back to camera. 2 cars in background. Policeman. Vehicle comes from Farrar Lane with white top. Was it ice cream van or gas powered?
13. Carnival Queen Shirley Ashley in tiara with train and holding flowers. Maids of Honour: Pamela Ashley on left carrying train, Elsie Hughes, Wendy Knowles, June Thackray. Man in jacket and tie supervises. Crowd on far pavement. Children in costume following Queen include Irene Budding, 9, in white “Dutch” hat and her sister Sylvia, 5, dressed as a fairy. A couple of yards in front of them is their cousin Margaret Jones, black hair. Van (bakery?) and car right to left.
14. Crowd walk towards camera. Women in black coats. Woman in black with “bandy” legs and stick. Child holding woman’s hand. School. Child with whisk or feathers? Man on left flat cap.
16. CU crowd. Man flat cap. Women. Woman in green shirt called Doris Jones, (Budding children’s aunty).
17. CU crowd. Jabez Kirby in black jacket and tie with wife Lilian, lived on Greenlea. Woman walks to his side. Hubert Holstead, miner, with open necked white shirt. Woman on left face to camera. woman scratches head. Woman with pram. Man with motorbike sidecar. Man to rear with white flat cap.
18. Comic policeman and man as horse. Man in crowd turns to camera.
19 Comic band right to left led by Charlie Chaplin. Various instruments. Man dressed as pirate with euphonium is Bernard Forrest, lived All Saints Circle. Man in red shirt with little hat is John Taylor Hirst. Man in top hat. Cymbals. Base drum.
20. Woman with parasol and man jump up and down. Woman walks right to left. Boy face to camera.
21. Men talk to Charlie Chaplin. Pan to band. Man in little hat yawns. Woman dressed in army uniform.
22. Croft field. tent. Woman as miner is Jane Bayliss. Boy with balloon, woman left and boy, women in tent door. Woman in black is Mrs. Wilde.
23. Swiss Alps girls. Red Indian, man in black suit, man next to Indian in hat. Woman fiddling with pushchair.
24. Britannia with shield: Elsie Naylor. Page boys. Tallest is Derek Moore from French Street. His parents were Richard and Ethel Moore. Woman in hat.
25. House in rear is Oulton House, home of Dr Seville. Woman in grey suit, boy, girls.
26. Queen with sash and flowers, long train. Procession. Tall girl with sash behind Queen and girls holding train is Joyce Hirst. More girls.
27. CU girl holding train. Women in background. Pan right to left. School and Volter shop in background. Man with arms folded. Woman with handbag. Children in fancy dress include Margaret Jones and Irene and Sylvia Budding again.
28. Man in long shorts fishing line. Man in black suit. Woman in back with bag. woman and pushchair.
29. Charlie Chaplin. Pan up to policeman, man in top hat, man with moustache in floppy hat, 2 clowns, 1 crouching the other standing – Frank Cornish, man with red hanky on head. man and “ugly” sisters next to clown. Man with miner’s helmet called Ellis. Man with Scots hat is Joe Copley. Next to him Julian Horton dressed as a woman with grey hat
30. Jump cut to same people, pan left. Man with large buttons holding tuba, man with miners helmet, man with small hat, younger man behind. woman in uniform, man in bowler type hat with instrument. pan left to clown with white bib.
31. CU army woman, man red beret.
32. Ugly sisters, man with helmet, woman with small hat: Mrs. Wilde “she was the life and soul of the party.” “She danced on tables in the pubs” Wore Union Jack knickers. “She used to show them to everybody!” Comic copper, woman in helmet, ugly sister, man in Scots hat. Woman with necklace is Edie Horton.
33. Same as 32 wider shot, dancing, man with hands in pockets.
