Three Counties Show part 2, 1950's - Film 41590
A banner bears the message, Welcome to Leominster, The Great Three Counties Show. People are arriving at the Show and are paying at the gate. An elderly man with a white beard is Mr Elijah Molyneux, 89, a big farmer and once Mayor of the town. Mr Archer Baldwin, the Conservative MP for North Herefordshire, arrives with his wife, Minnie, and they chat with Bill Gallimore, the official auctioneer through Russell, Baldwin and Bright for the Hereford Herdbook.
Guests arrive at the Bandstand. Briony Hastings, daughter of Mr Glynne Hastings, long serving Secretary of the Society, presents bouquets to Lady Lettice Cotterell and the Mayoresses of Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester and Leominster. A Government delegation of visiting farmers from Nigeria dressed in traditional costumes take their places.
A procession of dignitaries from the three counties in ceremonial dress is led by the Mayor of Leominster, in red robes and the Aldermen in purple. The man using a crutch is Sidney Layton, a farmer from Ivington. The Councillors, including Dennis Rowland Jones, wear blue cloaks. The tall man is Norman Davies, who owned the Corn Square Pharmacy in Leominster until the late Eighties.
Adrian Foster, one of two shop-owning brothers is also in this procession.
Two members of the Leominster procession carry the Town maces which were given to the town in 1723 by the Right Honourable Thomas, Lord Coningsby as replacements for three earlier ones presented to the town by two of his forebears in the seventeenth century, which subsequently disappeared. The ceremonial Mayor’s Wand is also carried. This is a plain black ebony stick tipped with a band of silver and bearing the date 1659.
The Hereford Mayor wears a scarlet robes trimmed with velvet and a solid gold chain containing twenty-four medallions showing aspects of the City and county such as apples, hops, a Hereford Bull, Wye Salmon and military insignia. The liveried men have dark coats with gold braiding. The fur Cap of Maintenance is one granted to ten principal cities of England by Queen Elizabeth 1 as a reward in support of the sovereign and is carried by the sword bearer.
The dignitaries line up facing the distinguished guests and some doff their hats. In front of them stands the ducking stool, an ancient instrument of punishment in which nagging wives could be dunked in the river.
The Master of Ceremonies in scarlet tailcoat speaks to Sir Richard Cotterell and Glynne Hastings, bowler hat and gloves in hand strides off on some errand. Three farmers look on.
In the main arena the pipers of the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders march on. Officials talk to members of the African delegation who take their seats. The crowds stand as the procession arrives.
Two horses pull a dray advertising the brewery, Mitchells and Butlers. Two skewbald ponies trot by pulling a smaller trap. Then there are shire horses with foals. Show-jumping is taking place and a parade of horses in pairs. The North Herefordshire Foxhounds are led by three hunt servants, each on a grey horse. There are several more traps drawn by trotting ponies, one driven by a woman.
Two policemen walk through the trade stands. Alexander and Duncan’s stand, still a thriving firm today, shows a fine display of agricultural machinery. Along comes a little man, wide trousers, cloth cap, “bum-freezer” jacket, cigarette in mouth – and then back he comes again. Taylor and Ward, ironmongers and only recently disappeared from Leominster, display their agricultural accessories, and Hintons, still a strong element in Leominster have a trade stand too.
The Duck Song 2
Song by Bryant Oden. Video by Forrest Whaley.
iOS app out now! Works on iPod Touch, iPad, & iPhone...
Get the song...
Get the shirt...
Oh hey, there's also a book...
Thanks so much for watching and sharing! :)
______________________________________________
MORE DUCK SONGS:
OTHER SONGS: