At the start of December our little town holds it's annual Victorian Festival.
It's much like the Ulverston Dickensian Festival in Cumbria, but at the size that one was when I helped in the setting up of it for it's first year twenty five years ago. These days the Dickensian Festival is a huge draw with coach loads of people coming into Ulverston for the event.
Anyway ours is smaller, less well known nationally but having been going for forty years it is much loved by the folk of our town and all the surrounding areas. The supermarkets turn off their 'parking eyes' and the car parks are always full to capacity as is the road along the High Street once the Santa Parade has gone by each evening.
The shop keepers and locals dress up, if they want to, in Victorian style clothes, some of the food vendors sell Victorian offerings from their street stalls including chestnuts literally toasted on an open fire in front of you, and Parched Peas, a traditional Lancashire dish ... which I have to admit to never tasting! Seemingly they are very popular and usually sell out half way through the evening no matter how many the ladies prepare.
The first night we went in late to purposefully enjoy the more grown up side of the Festival, and then on the second night we went into town earlier.
We were there in time to see Santa on his sleigh, led but not pulled, by two beautiful donkeys wearing red coats and tinsel, and followed by a large drum band and stilt walkers. Once he was ensconced in his grotto he took the children on his lap and listened to their Christmas wishes before presenting them with a gift from his workshop, which is obviously much further Up North.
Us grown ups made do with walking along the street, sampling some of the wares, having a go on the charity tombola stalls and enjoying mulled wine to warm our chilly hands. A drink each might have been partaken in local High Street hostelries, just one on each evening as a sit down was very necessary.
Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 🍷
Sue xx 🎄
Sounds a lovely festival. I must investigate parched peas, I hadn't heard of them.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I hadn't heard of them before we moved here.
DeleteOh I'm jealous, our 'Victorian' fair wasn't at all! Glad it was so good and you enjoyed it, now I'm off to follow that link to find out what 'Parched Peas' are! Sooze x
ReplyDeleteI think our town with it's old buildings lining the High Street just suits the Victorian vibe perfectly. I can't even tell you what the parched peas smell like as I still have no sense of smell.
DeleteThat sounds a great evening out. Another one intrigued by the "Parched Peas"! Llandod used to be famous for its Victorian celebrations - a week where folks dressed in Victorian clothes and promenaded around the town, and there were all sorts of different events. It still happens, but I fear post-Covid it is not the force it used to be.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.llandrindod-wells-victorian-festival.org.uk/
Seemingly our Victorian Festival only got back to it's full splendour last year after the Covid interruption. Thanks for the link, our costume wearers were nowhere near as colourful as the daytime outfits the ladies in the link were wearing. They were all 'evening and Christmas' attired. Isn't it good that these things are carried on by dedicated groups of townsfolk.
DeleteAs my married name derives from ‘pea seller’ (Pescod - and there were hundreds of Pescods in Sussex - folk who would grow the peas during the summer, dry them and throughout the winter sell them door to door to cottagers who were scraping by hand to mouth. I sound like a contestant on Call My Bluff!) and I am of Lancastrian stock I am also intrigued by your parched peas. Dried peas were a protein-packed staple food for cottagers during the winter months and added to water, roots, ends of bread, any green herbage, and simmered over a fire kept us alive. I know it as pease pottage as in the rhyme, ‘pease pottage hot, pease pottage cold, pease pottage in the pot nine days old’. Pease pottage is often on the bubble in the Tudor kitchen at the Weald and Downland museum and I think it is delicious. Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw it cooking away at the Weald and Downland museum the last time I was there. I sort of guessed that Parched Peas would be the same, or at least very similar to Pease Pottage. It's nice to have it confirmed thank you. I have never tasted it as to me it looks like 'mushy peas' and I really don't like them, but I need to be braver next year and buy some.
DeleteSounds like a really fun festival to attend. I looked up parched peas and they sound interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lovely couple of evenings out. xx
DeleteHi, I too hadn’t heard of Parched peas so looked it up . Looks like it can be made from Carlin peas. I’m from Yorkshire & growing up we had something similar ( I think) on Carlin Sunday ( the 5th Sunday of Lent) . I think it’s wonderful how our tiny island has so many local traditions. Glenda
ReplyDeleteWe really do have a lot of local traditions don't we, and I love how they are so similar to each other but made special in the place they are celebrated.
DeleteThis sounds like a wonderful treat in these dark nights. Well done to the supermarkets for turning off their parking eyes. Catriona
ReplyDeleteThe biggest car park in our town is the one at Booths, so I always think it's brilliant that they do this for all the big festivals in our town.
DeleteI’ve heard of parched peas but have never tried them, these local delicacies are fascinating aren’t they?
ReplyDeleteA glass of mulled wine in December is a lovely thing.
Alison in Wales x
I will have to make an effort to try them for myself next year. Oh the mulled wine was lovely, and very much needed to warm our hands.
DeleteSadly, they've had to cancel the local Dickensian evening 😢. It should have been this evening but they won't risk it with the bad weather. I feel so sorry for all the small shops, they've been preparing for weeks.
ReplyDeleteIt really is sad isn't it, so many events have had to be cancelled this weekend and it's one of the biggest trading days before Christmas.
DeleteGlad you got to enjoy your Victorian Festival.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Storm Darragh our ‘Taste’ festival has had to be cancelled and I wonder how many Christmas Markets will not be able to go ahead this weekend? Stay safe whatever you do this weekend. x
There are a lot of farmers and Christmas markets cancelled in our area. It's such a shame.
DeleteYour Victorian festival sounds a fun evening.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we are not reliant on peas pottage/ parched peas/mushy peas to live on through the winter nowadays!
It really was. I couldn't agree more ... it would make for windy weather indoors as well as out if we lived on peas all Winter. ;-)
DeleteOne of the small towns near us puts on a Dickinson night each Christmas. I always say we will go, but the weather has never cooperated. Perhaps next year.
ReplyDeleteYour festival looks like a great deal of fun.
God bless.
It such a shame when so much effort goes into the planning of these events. The weather really isn't co-operating this year, maybe you will get there next year. Fingers crossed.
DeleteI love a good Xmas festival. My sister told me about Leeds Xmas market as I visiting her next week for the day . £8.00 for a hot chocolate does it have gold in it! £3.00 for 3 marshmallows you toast on a stick. And they were awful she said. We were going to go to Durham Xmas festival today. But my anxiety over crowds has kicked in I have ADHD, autism and anxiety. I can’t deal with it. Plus seeing a woman look like she is going to burst into tears any second isnt a good look.
ReplyDeleteI love the Japanese festivals they seem better organised and no one pushes and barges infront of you which triggers me. Since when has everyone become so angry and selfish. My mum even said that yesterday. Which is very sad . It’s bad enough we have to deal with online influencers trying to get that perfect image or acting a total well dick. One looks like he is going to prison in Korea after all the chaos he caused. He didn’t learn his lesson in Japan! Sorry . God I’m moaning again. Lol
Yes the food prices are very high, but then the stall holders do have to pay a good fee for their pitch, so I guess they are trying to get into profit as quickly as possible. I was sensible and had my tea before we went out so I wouldn't be hungry, Alan did not think ahead. He bought himself some vegetarian paella, basically a small tray of spicy rice and vegetables for £9!!
DeleteI will say that everyone was in very good spirits at our festival, there was no trouble that we saw or heard about, and everyone was chatting to everyone else. Society has changed an awful lot in the last few years hasn't it, my younger son (who's in his late 30s) is always commenting on the change he sees in people's behaviour. He's ex-Police so he witnessed it out on the beat and then later in the phone control rooms.
It's sounds like you had a wonderful time. I've never heard of parched peas either.
ReplyDeleteThey were new to me last year as well, I've still not tasted them ... maybe next year. :-)
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