Jade Allen as a flower girl in the 1993 carnival. The second photo shows Jade with Katy Barratt (centre, in white dress); but the name of the girl in pink is unknown.
Photos courtesy of Mrs McCreanor.
Left to right: Helen Rose; Claire Toon (Queen, under blue brolly); Emma Hoskins. 1993 was one of the few years when it rained for the carnival parade.
Photo courtesy of Mrs McCreanor.
Left: Kim Berta (Maid of Honour).
Centre: Tracey McKinnon (Queen).
Others – names unknown.
Photo courtesy of Mrs McCreanor.
Rebecca Birbeck (left): Tanya Niles (centre, Carnival Princess). Girl on right – name unknown.
1990 was the first year when there was a younger girl chosen as Carnival Princess, as well as a Queen; so Tanya Niles was Longridge and Shaw Heath’s first Carnival Princess.
Photo courtesy of Mrs McCreanor.
Emma Jozkow, Carnival Queen 1990, on her float on the way to the Birkin Centre; and at the Birkin Centre for the coronation ceremony. Unlike some previous years, the tradition seems to have changed, and Emma was not crowned by the retiring Queen from the year before, but by someone who we have not identified but who was possibly a local Councillor.
It is interesting that (last photo) the Queen and Princess were photographed by the Knutsford Guardian. By this time, the Longridge and Shaw Heath Carnival was regularly featured in the local paper; but in its early years, it was not covered at all.
Photos courtesy of Denise Comley.
Amanda West (right, nearest to camera) with an unknown Retiring Carnival Queen ( left, wearing blue cloak), driving in to the Birkin Centre at the end of the carnival parade. Date uncertain, but probably around 1986. Note the unusual float; not the usual options of a flatbed truck or a milk float!
Photo courtesy of Elenor McAndrew.
Retiring queen Nicky Wright and her borther Wayne in the front garden of their house, before the parade started. Nicky said in an interview in 2015:
The year I was Queen, he was the crown-bearer – which was fluke. I was on a float, but I think he walked – because he did drop the crown at one point!
I remember him being Tarzan one year – on a skateboard, bless him! And he dressed up as a woman once, which is quite ironic, because he earns his money as a drag queen now.”
Photos courtesy of Nicky Wright.
Interviewer: Vanessa Cardui.
Amanda West (left, in blue dress) as a flower girl on a Carnival float in about 1985. Other children, names unknown.
Photo courtesy of Elenor McAndrew.
Tracey Short, (centre) as retiring Carnival Queen in 1984, photographed on a float with some of her retinue. Notice her blue cloak, the traditional costume of the outgoing Queen.
The outgoing Queen had her own float, separate from the new Queen and her retinue. By the 1980s, both Queen’s floats were usually flatbed trucks, as here, probably because they were open-topped, allowing the Queens to be easily seen and photographed. Milk-floats were also used in the parade, but not for the Queens. In the 70s, however, the Queens and her retinue travelled on a milk-float, as shown here.
Some pictures of the 1983 Longridge and Shaw Heath Carnival, when Tracey Short was Queen.
Tracey is wearing the traditional red cloak of the Carnival Queen. In some pictures you can also see the previous year’s queen wearing a blue cloak, which was also a tradition. In the second picture, on the far right, you can also see the crown-bearer, holding the crown on a cushion. This was another special role at the Carnival, and could be held by a girl or a boy.
The Queen was crowned at the end of the procession, when it reached the Birkin Centre. Since the 70s, it had been the tradition that the previous year’s Queen crowned the new Queen. You can see in these pictures that this was done in 1983 – notice the blue cloak of the girl performing the crowning, which shows she is the outgoing Queen. But in later years, photos show that it was sometimes a local councillor or other local adult who performed this role.
By this time, the crown and cloak are different from the ones that were used in the 1970s. The Queen’s dress was also different from the one used in the 70s. Tracey’s dress was probably made specially for her; but in the 70s, Andrea Tubritt (queen in 1976) remembers
I don’t know where [the dress I wore] came from; it was donated, they just had it there. I’m not sure if the Queen wore it every year, if it was the same dress.”
On this project, we didn’t manage to find out for certain whether the Queens wore the same dress every year in the early years of the Carnival; or what year this crown and cloak started to be used. However, we think the crown and cloak were renewed again in 1984, the year after these pictures were taken; when Nicky Wright was Queen in 1984 she wore a different crown from this one, and she remembers that her cloak was new. We also know that by 1984, the Queen was definitely wearing a dress that was specially made for her alone; and we think that probably happened here in 1983 as well.
Photos courtesy of Andrea Tubritt.
In 1976, in these pictures taken on the Queen’s carnival milk-float, Suzanne Oliver (left) and Sharon Gregory (right) were both Maids of Honour at the Longridge and Shaw Heath Carnival. They were best friends, and had both been Carnival Queens in previous years; in fact, Sharon Gregory may have been the first Longridge and Shaw Heath Carnival Queen. Sharon’s father ran the Youth Club, and took a big part in organising the Carnival.
The Carnival Queen for 1976, Andrea Tubritt (nee Curran), said in an interview,
Their dresses were white, with blue little flowers on. Quite pretty! I don’t think they made them – someone did, but I’m not sure who. I don’t think the flowers in their hair were real, no! We were on a milk-float – I think years later, they introduced the trucks. And there were a lot of people walking – not everyone was privileged with a ride!”
Interviewer: Vanessa Cardui.
Photos courtesy of Andrea Tubritt.
CREATION OF A COMMUNITY 
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