Jane Caldow – Carnival floats were a marketing tool

Simon: I mean they were a marketing tool I guess …

Jane: Of course!

Simon: … but a contribution to the Town.

Jane: To the Town, and the Carnival in those days was wonderful ‘cos all the businesses did it, you know and the end thing was always the steam engine from the classic Steam Railway and we were watching once and they used to come along, you would go up round the Town and come round, and this must have been the Illuminated when it was slightly … but it was coming round the corner from Cross Street into Union Street and this great big old steam … and it slipped and it went towards the crowd, and in those days the crowds on the pavement were 5 or 6 deep, ‘cos again it was a really big thing, and we watched it from our windows above and thank God it was all OK, but I still remember the shock as a child.

Simon: So, that was a sort of road squashing steam thing was it?

Jane: The classic… the ‘Havenstreet Queen’ it was called, because we have got some photos of the Industry’s Fair when they used to do the Fashion Shows and one of the steam engines is in that photo.