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For two years David Morgan kept the Festivities
going as chairman. He had always been a stalwart helper and for
years he tidied up after the wonderful Marge Frost's famous White
Elephant stall. I can hear her now with her gruff voice remarking
"It's not the quality wot we used to 'ave Mr. 'Umfrey".
Over the years she must have made thousands of pounds on her
stall, supported by Molly Chalwyn who later took on the running
of this most important part of the Festivities.
Kit North-Lewis presided over what must
have been the wettest festivities of all time in 1979 and though
conditions were appalling the village came out in strength and
it was still successful. Throughout the sixties and seventies
there were wonderful fancy dress parades which followed the Harting
Old Club band up to the playing field, the younger ones being
transported on a farm trailer and floats being driven or pulled
there to be judged on the field. A particularly memorable one
was George Giri's "Gipsy Moth III" the year that Sir
Francis Chichester completed his record-breaking voyage. Also
the youth club, which my wife Ann and I ran in the early 60's,
fabricated a 40-foot dragon which was made out of plastic farm
sacks and terrorised the crowds on the way to the field. All
the club members climbed inside it and made horrendous dragon
noises. Sadly I have no photographs of the early years of the
festivities on the field and would be most grateful to see any
that maybe in existence and to have them copied.
After that disastrous wet year there was
a crisis as no one was prepared to be the ensuing chairman and
though I was already Chairman of the Parish Council and Secretary
of the Harting Old Club I was talked into taking it on. By this
time the cost of the tentage had risen alarmingly to well over
a thousand pounds and I was not prepared to work to pay for so
much money to go out of the village. So I proposed to change
the venue to the Street, where it has been ever since. There
was a very special atmosphere on the field which could never
quite be repeated in the street, but the concentration of the
crowds and use of many buildings and gardens made it as much
fun and far more rewarding financially. That first year in 1980
we could not stop the traffic and that was very scarey but we
got away with it and after pleas to the police and various councils
we succeeded in getting it closed in the following year, which
then made it safe to use the South Gardens. In the first two
years that I was chairman we raised the £4250 to pay for
the new playground equipment in the South Gardens and Furze Meadow
and the swings on the Playing Field, helped by the then chairman
of Wicksteeds, Mr. Kenny, who lived in West Harting. I quote
from Don Francomb's report in the Parish News" The Malthouse
lunches and the Congregational teas were inevitably popular as
was the Parish Church where there were lovely flower arrangements
illustrating village activities and in the school a fascinating
exhibition of working steam contraptions as well as the ever
busy Produce stall and Mrs. Frost's amazing White elephants.
In 1981 the South Gardens was a sea of mud as it rained all day
and while the children were happy the parents were not. The bookstall
started by Gillian Jacomb-Hood and then run by Celia Eatwell
broke all records by taking just short of £600 and even
the outside stalls somehow survived"
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