At the 2015 Longridge and Shaw Heath Fun Day, the Creation Of A Community project set up a photo booth on a milk float, with a backdrop painted by Keith Clifford. People were invited to dress up as a Carnival Queen and have their photo taken. Below are some of the people who did!
Photos taken by Creation Of A Community project.
Dad worked at Express Dairies in Wythenshawe. He got up at 3.00 am and made porridge for everyone. He left in on the stove for us to get up to, around 7.00 am. He got a lift to work and back with his mate, one of the Ashtons, who had a car. Mum made proper dinners and looked after the kids. We all ate together – tea at night and Sunday dinners. On a Sunday, mum used to divvy up the chores and we just did them.
From an interview with Christine Coad, 2015
Interviewers: Ged Martin and Simon Grennan
At the Carnival parade in about 1992.
Sitting on the milk float, left to right:
name unknown;
Pearl Howard;
name unknown.
In the crowd:
Gillian Paton (left, with pram);
three children, names unknown;
Hilda Marshall (right, with arms crossed).
Photo courtesy of Mrs McCreanor.
Kay Granger, and the “Space Travel” themed milk float that she helped to decorate for the 1991 Carnival.
Photo courtesy of Mrs McCreanor.
The Town Crier at the 1990 Carnival. In the second photo, he leads a pipe band, with a milk float behind, just visible at the back.
Photos courtest of Denise Comley.
Emma Joszkow and an unknown boy on a milk float in the Carnival parade, with children wearing Robin Hood-themed costumes following behind. The year is unknown, but it was before Emma was Queen in 1990; we have guessed at 1988.
Emma Jozkow said in an interview:
I’d been in it [the carnival] nearly all my life, really, from the age that I was allowed to go in it; I was various things, I think I was Lady in Waiting a couple of times, fairies, various characters… It was a big thing!
Photo courtesy of Denise Comley.
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.
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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