140 years of fair-ly good fun
IT’S summer time, the sun is shining, the Hoppings are back on Newcastle Town Moor - and it’s time to have some fun.
The travelling funfair, a major annual fixture on Tyneside’s social calendar, runs until Saturday and this year the event will be extra special.
It takes place for the first time in three years after being cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid-19 restrictions. It is also the landmark 140th anniversary of the yearly Newcastle institution.
The Hoppings started life in 1882 as a temperance fair in an age when Victorian do-gooders across the country chose to preach the virtues of being tee-total.
The event was designed to be a counter-attraction to the boozy activities at the annual Race Week at nearby Newcastle Racecourse.
In a video clip you can watch on our website, again courtesy of the North East Film Archive, we revisit the Hoppings on its visit to the city 55 years ago in 1967.
The footage was originally broadcast on June 28, 1967, for the Tyne Tees Television Late Look news programme. Reporter Clyde Alleyne visits the fun fair and interviews showmen and women.
One of them was a performer who billed himself as ‘Davey Jones the Irish Leprechaun’ travelling with
Robert Campbell and Jennie Jepson’s show. The interviews focus on the economics of attending the fair and the effect of the rain on profits that year, held one week later than usual to avoid a clash with a re-scheduled Race Week.
If you would like to watch more archive footage like this but in DVD form Newcastle On Film has been specially produced by NEFA.
Presented and narrated by Pam Royle - latterly of ITV Tyne Tees News fame - it pays homage to life on Tyneside and features lots of wonderful archive film footage.
The DVD ‘Newcastle On Film’ is priced at £12 (including postage and packing) and all profits from the sale go back into the valuable work of the North East Film Archive.
See more from the North East Film Archive at www.yfanefa.com.