Whatstandwell Carnival, Whatstandwell (1928)

This is most likely the "Fancy Dress Parade". Village Carnivals in the past gave the local community a chance to let its hair down, sometimes literally! Costumes were all made by the people themselves or their neighbours - I recall preparations for the Carnival in Grindleford when I was a child. We used to make paper roses out of crepe paper for decorating the ‘floats’, and one year my mum made a “blonde wig” for the man next door to dress up as a woman. She used binder-twine for the ‘curls’. Back then it was made from a natural fibre so it was the same colour as hay, rather than blue, or orange plastic as it would be today (from which one might well get another sort of wig!). Whilst the binder-twine was rough, it really did seem quite luxuriant, but then I was rather young at the time!

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)

This image is one of a collection of photographs taken during a touring holiday in the summer of 1928.