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 It would be wrong to write this report without first mentioning the long history of the Harting Old Club and the fact that the Festivities is all part of that history. Since 1800 the club has been celebrating this day and indeed it welcomes the Festivities helping keep the tradition going and emphasising the importance of the club and its activities. When in 1959 Tricketts, the fairground people, decided not to hold their traditional fair in the street on Whit Monday the Parish Council decided to put on a fete in its place on the War Memorial Playing Field. General Hawes and David Roebuck offered to set up the show as Chairman and Secretary respectively and it proved to be very successful and they did this for two years. The following year for some reason David did both jobs, which even in those days when it was a much smaller event was some feat. It grew under the chairmanship of Ken Bawtree for two years and then David Simmons for the years of 1964,65,66 by which time we had a tea tent, a flower tent and a white elephant tent. Mrs Hosking ran the tea tent with its decorated tables and boiled the water on two ex-army field kitchen stoves fuelled by huge piles of logs. The delicious cakes were all made by her fleet of helpers and she always had a tent full of people to serve. John Hosking and Michael Fraser helped out with the heavy work. The tents were supplied by John Lewis of Emsworth at that time costing the huge sum of £192. By 1966 we had managed to make a profit of £297 and from then on we managed to be in credit to the present day. Initially we insured against a wet day but this became a nonsense as it tended to absorb all the profit and we never claimed a penny! |
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