Carnival & Village Scenes

Some vintage cars and a cricket match feature, and the film shows scenes of thatched buildings and more modern houses from the 1930s, as well as new builds. The final sequence shows a Massey Ferguson combine at work, including scenes of the grain being transferred into a trailer, illustrating how the country and urban areas have come together, as the new houses are visible in the background. The film which finishes with night burning of the straw as the light fades.

A town crier leads a marching band and the Carnival Queen on a float. She is followed by other Carnival Queens, some in convertible cars including those from Colchester and Buntingford. Other floats in the procession include one representing Emergency Ward, a train with people walking inside, and a procession of bubble cars representing the seven dwarfs. Great Dunmow is notable for its four-yearly ritual of the ‘Flitch Trials’, an ancient custom mentioned in ‘The Canterbury Tales’, in which married couples must convince a jury of local bachelors and maidens that, for a year and a day, they have never wished themselves unwed. Successful couples parade down the High Street and receive a flitch of bacon.