AUGUST 2025

Carnival Time

It is a pleasure to see the return of the East Cowes Carnival this year, due to be held on Saturday 23rd August.  The organisers spent several hours at the Heritage Centre having fun looking through the files relating to the previous carnivals held in the town.

The earliest carnival photograph we have shows King Neptune outside the Town Hall, surrounded by crowds of people.  It dates from 1932.  Then local residents did not travel far from home for their entertainment, and there was little money to spare.  Homegrown entertainment was the norm.  In the 1930s, horses and carts were pressed into service for the carnival, even the coal cart – just cleaned up a bit! The other “holiday” for the children was the Sunday School church outing.  This was often a picnic and games on Farmer Harvey’s field off Beatrice Avenue.  Children would make sure they attended Sunday school for the required number of days to be allowed to go to the picnic – even attending two or three churches in the town each Sunday to get more picnics.  Buns and drinks would be provided, although the children took their own mugs, tied on with a piece of string. By the 1950s, Carnival time was becoming more sophisticated. 

King Neptune outside the Town Hall

Lorries were used for the main floats ( including the coal lorries!) and many local firms created spectacular displays.   Decorated bicycle or pram classes were popular, and parents dressed up their children in homemade wonderful costumes.   No shop bought goodies such as today! Saunders Roe woodworkers, calling themselves the Woodpeckers, always built and manned an excellent float.  These commercial floats would compete keenly at all the main carnivals around the Island.  The Queens’ float makers always had to come up with new ideas, and the floats were often lovingly built using crepe paper or ribbon flowers.  One wonders what happened to the crepe paper flowers if it unfortunately rained!  

SARO Woodpeckers

1970s and 80s colour photographs give us a better reminder of the East Cowes carnivals, and the elaborate decorations.  Beautiful dresses were made for the Queens and their Princesses, although washing and ironing the dresses in between the many carnivals could become a problem for busy mothers, especially if there were yards and yards of flounces!  Dads were pressed into action to drive “Queenie,” the blue tractor that pulled the float. We still have some carnival photographs without names to go with them. 

East Cowes 1971

If you were on a Carnival float and have some time to pop into the Heritage Centre you might be able to help us by putting names to faces.  We are open every morning, except Sundays, 10a.m. – 1p.m. Around VJ day you may like to come in and browse through the original newspapers that we will have out that marked the end of WWII.  Handling these fragile newspapers really takes one back to 1945.

Sarah Burdett