All Our Yesterdays – a monthly look at Harlow in years gone by.
By Ian Beckett

ANYONE who was born or lived in Harlow during the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s is likely to have fond memories of the Town Show.

Harlow Town Show began life as an annual event in 1965. I wasn’t even 2 years old and suspect I didn’t attend, certainly not independently!

This month’s “All Our Yesterdays” is not a history of Harlow Town Show. That is probably a book waiting to be written and not by me. The bulk of this blog is taken from the contents of issue 65 of the Harlow Star – Thursday, 3rd September 1981.

Thumbs up for the FREE Town Show

The front page and many pages of the Harlow Star issue 65 of Thursday, 3rd September 1981 are dedicated to the 1981 Harlow Town Show which took place on the Showground of the Town Park on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th August.

The front page has an aerial shot of the event and a photograph of Harlow Council Chairman Cllr Alex James giving the thumbs up in the cockpit of a helicopter, along with the headline: “Thumbs up for the free Town Show”. Harlow Star reporter John Hill provides the narrative behind the photo and writes:

“Harlow’s first free town show captured everyone’s heart…and an estimated record attendance.
And Council Chairman Alex James set a record of his own, by being the first chairman to fly over the showground – in the STAR helicopter, accompanied by the show chairman Councillor Roy Collyer.

Later Mr James described the new free show as “More in the true community spirit, where people can come and go as they please”.

Visitors arriving by car were on the increase, too. Harlow Kiwians, who ran the car parks on behalf of the council, reported 600 more vehicles at the show this year, resulting in a £2,700 contribution to local community groups.

Now hopes are high for a similar event next year. A council spokesman said: “The show has been under the microscope in recent years, but everything did run very smoothly. It was a successful formula which proved the show can be a success, and it gives us a basis to look to the future.”

For 25 years the Harlow Town Show has been a ticketed two-day event where the general public had to pay to enter. As the Star reports, the Town Show had “been under the microscope in recent years”. Anecdotally I am aware that the annual event had been through, what some might call “a cost/benefit analysis” with the income not covering the expenditure, but the benefit to the town, its businesses, its services and its community organisations, it was argued, justified the outlay.

There was also a debate about the Town Show being aimed at “the great and the good”, epitomised by VIP tents with free food and drink, and reserved seats in showground, rather than for the ordinary Harlow citizen. These were impressions that the organisers of the first free Harlow Town Show would seek to depart from.

The Harlow Star chose to borrow the opening lyric of The Beatles song, “Money (That’s What I Want” – namely “The Best Things In Life Are Free” as a headline on one of the many inside pages covering the weekend spectacular and as the thread that runs through their main commentary.

The Star editor writes “THE BEST things in life are free – so said the Beatles… and Harlow Council must surely have proved the wisdom of those words following the success of the Town Show at the weekend.
Since the show started in 1965, more than 650,000 people have paid to see it. But this year the whole bumper fun package was free, and thousands of visitors decided to make the most of the super summer weather in the Town Park on Saturday and Sunday.

Thurstons, who ran the fair, reported record takings and said they thought even more people had attended than in 1975 when there was the highest Sunday attendance of 55,000.

And, in case you are still not convinced that the Beatles got it right, then look no further than your independent, all-Harlow newspaper: the STAR, the brightest, the best – and it’s free.”

The Harlow Star does not provide a comprehensive list of the 15 Main Arena events in the showground on Saturday 29th August between 2pm and 8pm, nor the 10 Main Arena events between 9am and 7pm on Sunday 30th August. Those included on the Saturday, were the Caledonian Highlanders, The Sky Hawks (an experienced team of three women parachutists), the Rescue Trained Alsatian Display Team, and two giant Hot Air Balloons, – one sponsored by Smirnoff and the other by British Gas. On the Sunday in the Main Arena, the audience in Harlow’s beautiful Town Park were treated to Showjumping, Line-Dancing and a visit from the City of Chelmsford Corps of Drums. That’s not to mention the events taking place in the Second Arena, the Country Crafts Music area and in and around Spurriers.

However, the Harlow Star really did the 1981 Town Show proud with its comprehensive coverage. Even a sidebar entitled “The Show in brief” provides quite a lot of details including –
the winners of the best local organisations stand: 1st place, Harlow Cycling Club, 2nd Brentwood and Harlow Treasure Hunting Club, and 3rd the Redeemer Lutheran Chuch;

Harlow Rugby Club conceded victory to the team for the Coach and Hoses pub in the Tug-of-War;
the horticultural trade competition winners were all from outside Harlow Maples Bonsai, Chelmsford (1st), The Three Suns Nursery, Maldon (2nd) and Rougham Hall Nursery, Bury St Edmunds (3rd), whilst Harlow Council were beaten into second place by Broxbourne in the local authorities’ section; and
11-year-old Paul Johnson of Copse Hill, Harlow entered a Harlow Police photo-fit competition and won an engrave pen set.

Whilst, according to the STAR, “almost without exception, visitors to the show” were delighted, not all exhibitors were ‘happy-bunnies’ – the Harlow Buddhist seeking to create an air of tranquillity were upset that the Harlow Majorettes were practicing outside their tent.

At the end of the weekend, Mr Brian Efde, chairman of Portabar, who supplied the two mobile bars was happy to raise a glass and report that “tipplers” had got through more than 9,000 pints of keg beer and over six tons of canned beers and mineral!

Harlow Council Chairman Cllr Alex James had arrived by helicopter but left in more traditional style. Accompanied by his wife Denise, and Cllr Roy Collyer, Town Show Chairman, they bid farewell to the showground crowds in a Model-T Ford, kindly loaned by Gates of Harlow and driven by John Budd, a well-known member of the Harlow Lions Club.

In Other News

The Harlow Star must have given over about half their usual news space in issue 65, covering the Town Show. However, there were a couple of other features that caught my eye.

The first was a wonderful photo beneath the headline “Barbara-Anne’s new classes”. The news report informs readers that “well-known dance teacher, Barbara-Anne Chalmers” was starting a new venture at Thomas More Church Hall, with the aim of bringing modern jazz dancing to a wider audience.

Barbara-Anne was indeed well-known. I had first met her as a supply-teacher when I was a pupil at Latton Bush Comprehensive School. I had learned that she was the daughter of Mrs Dee Palmer, my formidable cookery teacher, and, as I would discover in due course, a wonderful actress and dynamic director of musical theatre.

The razzle-dazzling photograph of Barbara is taken with students from one of her regular more traditional Harlow Ballet classes.

The other striking photograph is of two well-known local actors that I had the privilege to work with on stage “back in the day”: Keith Rowley and the late John Childs, who became a personal friend. They are picture in a scene from a Harlow Theatre Company production called “Only Yesterday” that was due to wow audiences the following week.

And finally

The headline “Shoot-Out By The Ashtree Field Gang” might have caused more consternation if it wasn’t on the STAR Sports page with a wonderful selection of photographs by Keith Remnant, accompanying this community story.

The article begins with the declaration that “the development and accuracy of modern weapons has given a tremendous boost to shooting clubs – and the Harlow Rifle and Pistol Club in no exception.” It goes on to explain that the club, based at the Ashtree Field Pavillion on Edinburgh Way, was set up in 1974 by former crime prevention officer, Sergeant Shelley Wright, whose experience, “on the job,” had given rise to concerns about the reckless, potentially fatal, use of air weapons by young people. Club members had to adhere to strict rules which included applying to the police for a firearms certificate and undergoing a stringent vetting procedure before they could participate in shooting.

Next Month:

Next month I take a look at news from the Harlow Citizen during the first week of October 1963, when I was less than a month old!