23 July 2010
Home-grown holiday spirit at Kelham Island Museum
Members of the public are being invited to a unique vintage event this weekend (31 July-1 August 2010) giving an insight into how our grandparents spent their summer holidays as youngsters.
The National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield Library will join the team at Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust to bring the Kelham Island Museum to life on Saturday 31 July and Sunday 1 August 2010 for the `Holidays at Home´ traditional summer event.
The event is a celebration of the `Wakes Week' when industrial towns across the north of England shut down for the holiday season. Children can learn about Sheffield´s patriotic holiday spirit during the 1940s and 1950s and grandparents can reminisce about the fun they had in the `good old days´.
The museum will be brought to life with vintage stalls and demonstrations by crafts consortium Craft Candy and the Seven Hills Women´s Institute. Vintage enthusiasts can learn more about how women traditionally `made and mended´ during the post-war era.
Visitors are encouraged to wear 1940s and 1950s inspired clothes, such as tea dresses, suitable for life at home and at work on the Home Front.
The highlight of the weekend event will be the National Fairground Archive´s new permanent Resource Room displays covering the history of travelling fairgrounds and allied entertainments. The nostalgic photographic display will bring to life how families spent their holidays at home enjoying traditional fun at the circus, seaside and fair.
Youngsters can sample war-time life by exploring the museum´s Anderson shelter and living history characters will demonstrate how to diffuse a bomb. The Furnace Cafe at Kelham Island Museum will look to wartime recipe books for a tasty rationing inspired themed menu.
Entertainment will be provided by the Everly Pregnant Brothers Ukulele Band on the Saturday and 1940s singer Paul Harper over the weekend. Hot-footed visitors can join in the lindy hop, swing jive, Charleston and period ballroom dancing from the golden era of the big band.
Children will have the chance to be mesmerised by Steve Faulkner´s escapology and magic tricks, and curious audiences can explore the miniature flea circus or get a taste of historical slapstick from the Danger Boys street performers. Families can also try their hand at fairground games such as hook a duck while enjoying mini fairground attractions. Visitors will also be treated to two unique film screenings from the Yorkshire Film Archive relating to Sheffield in the 1940s and films of Blackpool and its fairs in the 1950s.
The museum will be open as on both Saturday and Sunday with many displays linked to the war-time theme. For example, the River Don Engine rolled armour for warships, tanks and Spitfire´s. The devastating 22,000lbs Grand Slam Bomb, designed by Sir Barnes Wallis and made at Vickers & Co in Sheffield during the Second World War, will also be on show.
Professor Vanessa Toulmin, Director of the University of Sheffield´s Fairground Archive, said: "Wakes is a golden age celebration, and we are thrilled to be able to bring the tradition back to life in Sheffield once more. We wanted to provide the city with an exhibition which will revitalise the holiday feeling in the local community and relive this grand northern tradition.
"Working with our local partners at the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, we have curated an exhibition and series of events which promises to provide a lively weekend of entertainment and fun for all the family."
Niki Connolly, events and marketing officer for Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, said: "The trust is delighted the National Fairground Archive is bringing a taste of its unique collection from the Western Bank Library at the University of Sheffield to Kelham Island Museum because it will provide a fantastic insight into how holidays were spent in the `good old days´ before Spain and Florida became popular destinations.
"We like to host family-friendly events and Holidays at Home will definitely offer something exciting for every generation of your family. From children´s fairground rides, delicious food, live music, traditional entertainers, craft activities and an insight into the post-war period – this event has it all." Notes for Editors: For more information about the event log onto the below links or email ask@simt.co.uk or call 0114 2722106. Entry is free all weekend from 11am to 5pm. Kelham Island Museum is located on Alma Street, Sheffield, S3 8RY.
The National Fairground Archive (NFA) is a unique collection of photographic, printed, manuscript and audiovisual material covering all aspects of the culture of travelling showpeople, their organisation as a community, their social history and everyday life; and the artefacts and machinery of fairgrounds. The NFA collections are continuing to grow: there are now over 80,000 images in the photographic collection, in addition to audio and video material, journals and magazines, and nearly 3,000 monographs. The collection also includes a unique body of fairground ephemera (programmes, handbills, posters, charters and proclamations, plans and drawings). The NFA represents an important part of the cultural heritage of the nation. It is a primary resource of rich potential for research at every level; it provides a new and exciting source of teaching material for primary and secondary education, and provides access to a wealth of popular cultural history both for the fairground enthusiast and for the public at large.
For further information please contact: Lauren Anderson, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2221046 or email l.h.anderson@sheffield.ac.uk
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