The Wigan Park Show..Anyone remember it ?

Does anyone remember the Wigan Park Show which used end with a fire work display ??
Without giving my age away..lol...I must've been about 7 when we went to the last show. I can remember someone from our class had made a castle out of cardboard and it was on display in one of the large white tents!..thats about all I can remember...The firework display was held at the back of the tennis court. I think it took place in the Autumn..Hope someone else remembers it too!

Hi potterieslass I remember the shows.Our school used to exhibit various things we had made.I won 1st price for a red embroidered padded cushion that I madeYes it did I think take place early Autumn to accomodate the firework display.A lot of the park was taken over with big white tents.Seen that you lived in Letterewe Street some of our family lived in Letterewe and Pottery Street.

Hi potterieslass remember summer show as it was called very well,won a second prize
for a plate I made in woodwork at school.
It was always held end of August early
September and the firework display was on
the Saturday night.I can well recall the
tent that was supported by HJ Heinz and you could get a free small paper cup of
tomato soup which people would queue for ages for a morsel! Good memories.

My cousin used to work at Heinz, and she used to always do PR on the stand.

I remeber the firework display too.

Was the show before or after the fair on the market square?

I remember it because I used to work there for Cassinellis the ice cream family who ran the catering for it. Hard work every day from first thing till you dropped but I had a pocket full of money at the end of 2 weeks! Yeah.

I worked for them on the ice cream trailers, Mesnes Park Cafe, the Baths cafe, the deli in the old Market Hall. They were a hard working family but if you were willing to work as hard as them, they paid you to do it. Got many good memories of the girls/women I met then, talking about 35 yrs. ago.

I REMEMBER GOING TO THE SUMMER SHOW.ONE OF THE MOST VIVID MEMORIES WAS THE SMELL OF THE FLOWERS IN THE MAIN TENT.IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO LOOK ON THE W.W.PHOTOS IN EPHEMRA THERE ARE 2 CERTIFICATES.ONE IS MINE,I MADE A RUG AT SCHOOL,(ST GEORGES).THE JUDGES MUST HAVE BEEN A BIT SNUFFY SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME IN THE BEER TENT,WHICH BY THE WAY WAS ALWAYS FULL,BECAUSE THE RUG WAS RATHER CRAPPY.YOU WOULD GET YOUR MONIES WORTH COS IT LASTED ALL DAY.I BET ALL OUR MAMS AND DADS LOOKED FORWARD TO THE SHOW THEY COULD GET RID OF THE KIDS FOR NOWT.TODAY IT WOULD COST A BOMB JUST TO GET IN,NEVER MIND GOING INTO THE BEER TENT.

That Mesnes Park Summer Show and Display was a wonderful experience and the fireworks at the end were magnificent. Why in the world they chose to stop it I've no idea but it was a fabulous few days during the month of September, as I recall it. I was in my early teens then during the 60s. Fantastic.

The Summer Show was something I looked forward to every year We would make things at school and enter them. I think I got a 2nd prize once for some cross-stitch (or is that just wishful thinking?) If you didn't manage 1st, 2nd or 3rd, you could get "Highly Commended" or "Commended". I remember the pets' tent where people entered their hamsters and guinea pigs. I liked the fruit and vegetable displays too, especially the weirdly-shaped produce....you know the ones I mean. Wasn't there a sort of mini Cruft's style event too in an area outside penned off by ropes? The W.I. stall sold fabulous cakes and you had to get there quickly or they would all be gone. I feel as though I'm talking about an event from a 100 years ago! I wonder when the last one was held?

I have a memory that at the end of the firework display it saying something like Good-night see you next year as the finale.

Yes I remember it this particular year I won first price for a Dinner cloth Knitted in 60's Crochet Cotton 7 thousand stitches on a row across and a yard & 1/2 long and because it rained prizes were presented on the Band Stand I got a cut glass suger bowl and Milk Jug my mother was so proud of me

I remember this show. There used to be morris dancers near the duck pond. One year mi mother bought a cooker from the "British Gas" tent. I though we were reet posh cos it had a spit roast that came with it - we never used it though.

With all the nostalgia going about, I thought of this thread.

Memories, eh.

Good find Leccylallies. That's a great story Elizaeth, how times have changed.

One year the teacher at the art class I went at the time (nowt special) put
my painting of Mona Lisa in one of the tents..and a little gardener chap who
was a friend of my Mams said to me just have a look at that painting in there..
I was chuffed as a butty.

lovely memory momac.i had a painting that won first prize one year. mum was very proud because winners names were in the paper. My paiting wa sa portrait of a girl in class and I still have it. momac uou say yours was nowt special but your teacher obviously thought otherwise!

It's a lovely pastime isn't it Kath...I lose time when I'm painting.

i havent done any for ages but i was just thinking today that i need to organise a space and get into it

Kath,I love doing portraits and animals..what do you enjoy painting the
most...is it portraits,and do you used oils ..water colours or acrylics.

i'd love to do sky scapes and sea scapes .. I really like pencils and pens and feel more comfortable with that media. i like people. must get back to it all....

Yes, I had a pen-and-ink sketch in The Summer Show. It must have been around 1975. I was married but had no children at the time. Peter was working away and my Mam and Dad went with me to the show. I remember it was lovely, walking round with my parents, in a Park where they had taken me so often when I was little, and I felt like a child again, ESPECIALLY when we caught the bus home!.....A well-known Ince Character, (a lady who shall remain nameless), spotted us and BELLOWED down the bus to my Dad, "Is that thi' dowter, Bob?". "Aye", he said, whereupon the lady, who could whisper over three fields, boomed, "'Ow owd is 'er?", which wouldn't have been so bad if I was six, but my Dad had to say, "Twenty-two". Have you ever had one of those moments when you want the earth to open and swallow you up?!!

What lovely memories are on here I had forgotton about the Dinner cloth as I gave it to my Cousin as a wedding present she married Henry Williams son of Mark Williams butchers