Festival of Britain:
Tamworth
By Cllr W.A.Peel
Publisher: Tamworth Council/Johnson and Allsopp 1950
Published in 1950
ISBN: n/a
Reviewed for Volume 2 Issue 2 Spring 2024
The Review
Most of you won’t remember the Festival of Britain. It was a nationwide series of events from May to September in 1951.
Indeed as this small pamphlet of 20 pages explains Tamworth had some 30 events from June to September including Tennis Tournaments, Mining exhibitions, Agricultural shows, concerts, 6 Dances and a carnival in the streets.
Apart from the program of events this pamphlet contains an introduction by Councillor W.W Peel, The Mayor for 1950/51 and the obligatory pictures of the Castle, the Church and the Town hall. Along with a very short history of Tamworth ending with “…a small but flourishing community increasing in population and endeavouring in difficult times to maintain and extend the amenities to its people.” Did they have any idea that in 16 or so years’ time the town population would treble?
That aside the fascinating part for me is, apart from the cover price of 1 shilling, that this was clearly sponsored by adverts from local businesses. Allertons Stores and Café who seem to have done everything from corn and seed supplies to baking, catering and a café! Milo Turner the chemist who were pushing their cameras and films to record the festival. Feltons (Ironmongers)Ltd pushing sports equipment (tennis racquets) The Co-op, obviously as they were a major player in Tamworth. Also an advert, without a car on it, for Rose Bros “main ford dealers”. And a council run “Civic Restaurant” that not only served food but would cater for other events. It is not clear of this was just for the Festival year or not.
The other item of note is that not all companies had telephone numbers listed and those who did had 3 digit numbers except Alton’s Stores and Café whose number was “Tamworth 18”! the highest number being 654 for the Civic Restaurant”, which if set up for the Festival would suggest there were fewer than 660 Telephones in Tamworth in 1951! For those under 30 I should point out mobile phones and the Internet didn’t arrive for another 40 or so years. You had to write a letter and post it or actually go and speak to people face to face.
We hope to be able to digitise this pamphlet for the Tamworth Digital Archive Otherwise email the Editor for a copy .
For those who
want to know about the Festival of Britain here is
a (longish) documentary on it showing the Centrepice for the event in London. Some of which is still there roday.
