Carnival

For a good part of the twentirth century, Silverton like many villages in Devon, had an annual carnival. My mother can remember riding through the streets dressed as Joan of Arc on a poney hired from Walter Marsh who owned the Lamb Inn sometime in the nid 1920s Some thirty years later I can remember being dressed up as Sir Walter Raleigh, complete with cap, ruff and tights for the same event. In the 1950s, the Carnival processed around the village with some walking displays and some floats on the back of Lorries often supplied by Fred Davey who owned a haulage firm and kept his lorries at what is now the bottom of Applemead. I also remember as a wolf cub, riding on one of the floats desperately needing to relieve a call of nature and only just managing to make it off the lorry just in time. As I remember it the Carnival route went around the old part of the village and up as far as the old pond site at the turning to what is now Silverdale and then back down the main street again but maybe others have better memories of this. The carnival ended with a dance in the New Hall.

After the mid fifties the old Devon village carnivals went into decline due to rising costs and the changes in social life brought about by the spread of Television. The big carnivals like Exeter, and some smaller ones such as Broadclyst kept going longer but are now gone. The one remaining westcountry carnival that I know of remains Bridgewater, the big daddy of them all to which coaches ran from Silverton as far back as the 1960s.