This film is part of Free

Pulham Market Carnival and Fair

Pulham Market villagers are brought together for the annual carnival and fair, with an array of colourful costumes on display on this Saturday afternoon in September 1980.

Home movie 1980 11 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for East Anglian Film Archive

Overview

On a sunny yet blustery day in South Norfolk the villagers of Pulham Market hold their annual carnival and fair, with a parade of colourful carnival floats and fancy dress inspired by the year’s theme of ‘songs’. There are tributes to ‘Elvis’ and ‘Cliff’, cross-dressers, and a junior marching band. The community gather on the village green for a Saturday afternoon of games, stalls, and prize-giving.

This footage does feature a fancy dress participant blacking-up. Such a racially insensitive representation would not be acceptable today, however one must presume at the time it was merely a misjudged pun of a song’s title ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’, which was an incredibly popular chart-topping hit at the time of the film’s making.