Northumberland Archives hold several interesting documents with relate to circus which they are sharing on their Facebook page as part of the Circus250 celebrations. Many of the documents relate to incidents involving circus people in trouble or having drawn legal attention to themselves. 1988 Leslie Ord – Photo: Acquisition number NRO 3680/185. “The photograph is from… [Read More]
Circus Graves Research
With the interest in Circus Heritage heightened by the Circus 250 celebrations in 2018, we have started a small research into locating where circus people have been laid to rest, answering the call by Circus 250 to “Hunt for the nation’s secret, forgotten or unknown memorials announced (by) Historic England. Let them know about your… [Read More]
Fossett brothers remembered.
Circus bothers John “Jack”, Claude and Anthony “Bim” Fossett who all served are all remembered by Christine (niece) and George Pinder 100 years to the day after the death of Jack on 10/10/1917. The couple visited The Showman’s Guild of Great Britain memorial which is at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire where Jack’s name appears…. [Read More]
Incident in Wooler, 1908
Image courtesy of Northumberland Archives. Here is a curiosity, but is is a circus curiosity? Northumberland Archives, at Woodhorn have published this photograph of the Wooler Bridge accident c.1908, on their Facebook Page. Our Circus heritage interest meant that we picked it up as the archives reputed is as an engine and trailer owned by… [Read More]
War Circus Book Launch
The War Circus Book was Launched on 15th March 2017 at Mansion House, Newcastle upon Tyne. It was an event which was both poignant and respectfully witty bringing people to gather to mark the end of a years research. More importantly for us the launch helped to highlight the lives of people 100 years ago… [Read More]
WAR CIRCUS: PROJECT OVERVIEW
PROJECT METHODOLOGY ETHOS We do not intend, nor seek, to glorify war, but rather we are motivated to secure a circus narrative within the period of The Great War. APPROACH War Circus is a research project and publication which has been undertaken throughout 2016 by a small team of circus artists and researchers… [Read More]
WAR CIRCUS: SERVING SHOWMEN 1914-1918
THIS LIST IS AN A-Z OF SHOWMEN SOLDIERS & SAILORS NOT IDENTIFIED AS CIRCUS TYPE WORKERS OR PERFORMERS. There were reported to have been 70,000 showmen who served in WW1. This list contains 630+ individuals. Cross reference with The circus A-Z list, names should not appear on both lists. This list was compiled in 2016… [Read More]
WAR CIRCUS: A-Z LIST CIRCUS 1914-1918
This list was developed between 2016 and 2017. We are happy to add to it – please contact us. CIRCUS & PERFORMING SHOW FOLK Details are focused on events between 1914 and early 1919. Jobs or events after this time fall outside the scope of this project. Some individuals have both legal identity and performance… [Read More]
WAR CIRCUS: NORTH EAST NEWS SNIPPETS
War Circus Stories about the North East of England feature in this thread. They have been transposed from newspapers found in the British Libraries’ online archive, British Newspaper Archives; Tyne and Wear Archives, Fenwick Collection; The World’s Fair, the Showland newspaper held on microfiles at the National Fairground and Circus Archive, University of Sheffield. Note… [Read More]
WAR CIRCUS: ANIMALS
War Circus Stories about animals transposed from newspapers found in the British Libraries’ online archive, British Newspaper Archives; Tyne and Wear Archives, Fenwick Collection; The World’s Fair, the Showland newspaper held on microfiles at the National Fairground and Circus Archive, University of Sheffield. The American titles were found transposed online via the Circus Historical Society…. [Read More]