This England’s New Festival of Britain!

Inthe autumn issue, the Editor’s Letter recalled the 1951 Festival of Britain and suggested that, as the UK prepares to leave the EU, we should consider calling for a new Festival celebrating all that the UK has to offer. We have been inundated by your responses, so thank you to everyone who has replied. We include a few snippets from some of your letters and emails below and will publish more in the spring 2018 issue. Keep watching this space and the Blog section of our website (www.thisengland.co.uk) for more news. You can also register your online support at www.thisengland.co.uk/festival.

I have just taken out a subscription for This England and was overwhelmed by the fervour for a Festival. I am all in favour. We keep reading negative reports about how the UK will manage once we rid ourselves of the control of the EU. Your editorial was a joy to read! —

SUSAN PRESTON, BY EMAIL.

I enjoyed your Festival of Britain article. I was 22 years old, living in London and working with the newly formed National Assistance Board where we were busy taking in from Communist Poland all the dependants of Polish armed forces who had fought our common enemy.

London was where I got to see concerts in the Albert Hall, and there were the theatres too. But the icing on the cake was that 1951 Festival which, I do hope will be resurrected in a modern form, to delight us all again. —

MRS. G. SALLIS, LANCING, SUSSEX.

What an excellent idea to have a Festival to look forward to when all the fuss about Brexit has calmed down. To start working towards it now might be the solution to a lot of the present miseries and give a boost to everyone who looks forward to a great future outside the EU. — KENNETH LACEY, BY EMAIL.

What a wonderful idea which I heartily endorse. I visited the Festival of Britain and remember the Dome of Discovery, the Skylon and the fascinating Shot Tower. And now you seek to instigate a modern-day revival. Brilliant! Best wishes for the success of your endeavour. —

TREVOR JOHNSON, CHURCH STRETTON, SHROPSHIRE.

I would like to have my support noted for the United Kingdom Festival in 2019. I’ve shared details with a Jacob ReesMogg group that I’m a member of on Facebook and everyone so far is very much in favour. —

LYNN TICKLE, BY EMAIL.

I am voicing my strong support for a Festival to take place when Brexit has finally been implemented. This should be accompanied by a Bank Holiday Monday which would give Britain the opportunity for a yearly celebration. — MATTHIAS

GENTET, CHIPPING NORTON, OXON.

I remember the Festival of Britain as the grammar school I was attending took a party of us to London for five days and we attended a ballet at the Royal Festival Hall.

What a marvellous idea to celebrate our freedom from the shackles of the European Union! — JEAN FLACK, BY EMAIL.

May I congratulate you on proposing the staging of an event to promote Great Britain along the lines of the Festival of Britain of 1951. As you so rightly say, this would be the time to proclaim our independence as a great nation, what we stand for, what we can do and what we can achieve and to show our unique heritage to the world.

The Festival of Britain of 1951 did all those things and was visited by more than eight million people. The new “Festival of Great Britain” would exceed that figure with ease; the world is not coming out of a world war and travel is much more popular and our islands attract millions of visitors each year — think what an added attraction this would be, and what a boost to our country’s coffers at the crucial time of leaving the European Union.

We have so much to be proud of, here is a golden opportunity to show the world! — RICHARD

HOLDSWORTH, MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.

How wonderful to celebrate a release from the European Union. There are so many people looking on the black side when we have so much to offer the whole world. — MRS. VALERIE

MITCHELL, HALIFAX, YORKSHIRE.

My wife and I heartily support your proposal for a Festival of the United Kingdom. It’s a really splendid idea, which we hope will materialise. — PETER & ESTHER

ISAAC, LOOE, CORNWALL.

I very much support your proposal for an exhibition to celebrate our freedom from the EU. There should be a hall for all the UK inventions, discoveries and innovations without which the modern world would not exist, plus details of those great men and women from these islands who have led the way in so many fields.

As far as culture is concerned we have had artists such as Turner, novelists like Jane Austen and Dickens, great actors and actresses and, of course, William Shakespeare. The sports we have given to the world include football, cricket, rugby, golf, tennis, squash and badminton while organisations range from the Royal Society, the Scouts and Guides to the Mother of Parliaments. The ideals of trial by jury and habeas corpus were also conceived in this country.

When one realises that, in addition to all the above, the Industrial Revolution began in the British Isles, British explorers opened up the world, the British Empire was the greatest the world has ever seen and the English language is spoken by one in five people on the planet, we can see that only fools can regard this country as being other than perhaps the greatest nation that has ever existed. —

COLIN BULLEN, TONBRIDGE, KENT.

You ask about interest in a Festival of the UK. I suggest that a narrow majority of four per cent on a very serious issue such as leaving the EU hardly justifies a celebration. It was reckless to even ask the bland question in a national referendum. Now the UK faces its biggest political disaster since the Second World War. I can only hope that we will exit Brexit, or perhaps hold

another referendum, or best of all that the UK will rejoin the EU as soon as possible. We have had two world wars. The EU is all about unity and peace in Europe. — JAMES KELLY, WOODBRIDGE, SUFFOLK.

Your idea for a Festival in two years’ time is just fantastic and I for one am completely for it! — IRIS FALCONE, WALPOLE, MASSACHUSETTS, USA.

I heartily concur with your call for a Festival when we have regained our national independence. I can just remember my visits to the 1951 Festival of Britain sites.

You posed the question, what happened to the Skylon? My father worked at the time as an electrician for George Cohen and Sons’ metal recovery plant in West Ham, London. Scrap metal was sorted, tin cans detinned and the metal smelted for the booming construction and manufacturing industries at the time. Dad told me that George Cohen’s Wood Lane plant dismantled the Skylon and recovered the aluminium, much in demand for aircraft manufacture. — BRIAN SMITH, KIRBY

CANE, NORFOLK.

You rekindled perfectly the spirit of England during the war and post-war years. I lived in Bristol, a greatly bombed city and the spirit of “togetherness” was evident. I visited the Festival of Britain, a much-welcomed event and have clear recollections of it.

I voted to come out of the European Union (as did most folk I know) as we believed — and still do — it to be the only option to provide the country with the opportunity to become the independent nation it once was. We despair of the downward trends today. I plan to print off your letter and circulate it to my friends. A new Festival is a brilliant idea. —

GWEN BURMAN, BY EMAIL.

GERALD and two or three to either side have not been rebuilt and it is still a vacant area. —