Laugharne: a flower festival and two carnivals

Frocks and flowers fill the streets as the women and girls of Laugharne make their way to St Martin’s Church for the flower festival service.

Wardrobes and purses have been raided, and sewing machines set in motion, to ensure that the women and girls of Laugharne, with summer frocks and bonnets, can compete adequately with the blooms of the annual flower festival. Together with the choir - wearing mortar boards but also bearing flowers – they process to St Martin’s Church for the festival service. Footage of 2 carnivals follows – see 'The Local Dai Dower', a mini version of the Merthyr boxer.

This film opens with shots of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, and is one of a collection of reels shot by Ernest Vincent Williams (d.1964), whose family or relatives lived at Ashcombe House, King Street, Laugharne, some of whom are seen here sitting on the windowsill of the house and in the garden, with greenhouse, which would have been a good source of flowers for the festival. The well-tended garden of the Misses Williams – two sisters, retired pastry chefs who had run a cake shop in Llanelli – is also seen at The Croft in Clifton Street.