Remembering 'Silverton Week'.

As we draw closer to Street Market, I thought it might be worth remembering an earlier community event, This was Silverton Week which ran between 1972 and 1978 (approximately). The idea behind this event was because the Village was undergoing some rapid expansion with the development of first Silverdale and Applemead, and later Wyndham Road and its surrounding area, there was a need to do something that would help the village maintain a sense of community and also raise some much needed funding for the refurbishment of the village hall..

Silverton Week was nearer to the tradition of the old village carnival then to the current street Market. You had the grand parade through the village and a Silverton Week queen competition, but also prizes for the best decorated house and business. There were exibitions of art and photographs, and Silvertons first exibition of local history, organised by the late Dave Edmunds in 1976. There were also tug o wars and comedy football matches where men dressed up in womens clothing. Pram races were also a regular feature. The Week inevitably always ended with a dance in the village hall. Silverton Week eventually become an event spread over a fortnight and finally failed for the all too common reason that too few people were prepared to take part in the very considerable degree of organisation and the success of the event ended up resting on the same few shoulders.

While it was fairly short lived when compared to the timescale of the continuing Street Market, Silverton Week succeeded very well in terms of what it set out to do. It did create a situation where Silvertonians of all kinds could participate in an annual event and brought a great deal of enjoyment to those who took part and it was a successful fundraising event. I think it also created the conditions and the interest that groups like the local history society were able to build on. Where it failed, and I think that similar problems exist with Street Market, was that it failed to generate enough committment amongst a wider layer of the population to aid with the organisation of the event. At least with Street Market this is a situation that has not become a critical factor in its continuing existence.