St. Brides Major, Southerndown and Ogmore-by-Sea Community Website     Home

The Three Villages Carnival
Saturday, 16th June, 2012
To Celebrate the Diamond
Jubilee of
Queen Elizabeth
II

 Main Carnivals Page  |  Carnival 2012  |  Carnival Gallery  |  Carnival Word Search Puzzle

A dance was held in Wick on Friday, 1st June, 2012, to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II, followed by a Fete on the Village Green on Saturday, 2nd June, 2012; the winners of the children’s fancy dress competition who had been crowned King and Queen for the day opened the fete.  There were many stalls, antiques, books, crafts, basket weaving, pet area, Sumo wrestling display as well as Punch and Judy, RAF St. Athan Band, army cadets, to name a few of the attractions.  Villagers had been encouraged to build a scarecrow and display it throughout the previous week, with the winner announced at the fete.  On Monday, 4th June, 2012 there was a Dragon Parade between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm around the village green along Heol Faen (Vicarage Lane) to the field near to the ancient beacon site, followed by lighting of the Beacon in Wick, one of the 2,012 throughout the country to mark Queen Elizabeth's 60 years' reign and 4,200 across the world.  Starting with Tonga at 10.00 am BST, all were lit at around 10.00 pm local time except for the National Beacon which the Queen ignited at 10.45 pm outside Buckingham Palace. 

Corntown and Ewenny celebrated on Monday, 4th June, 2012 in the grounds of Ewenny Priory with events such as children's novelty races, fancy dress parade and fun dog show.  Later there was a hog roast at the Vale Cricket Clubhouse in Corntown, party with disco dancing, the lighting of a Jubilee Beacon and firework display. 

Members of the Parish of St. Brides Major & Ewenny, including: The Venerable Philip Morris (Archdeacon of Margam and Priest in Charge) and his wife Sheila, as well as a St. Bridget's bell ringer, attended Llandaff Cathedral on Thursday, 26th April, 2012, when the Queen visited Wales to start the celebrations of her Diamond Jubilee. The Woodland Trust gave batches of trees free of charge to St. Brides Major Community Council to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II; these were split with Ewenny and Wick Community Councils.  Southerndown WI held a Jubilee Supper in the Church Hall with members reminiscing how they spent Coronation Day in 1953.  Playgroup held a Garden Party on Thursday, 31st May, 2012 then St. Brides Major School held a Street Party on Friday, 1st June, 2012 and villagers attended a Garden Party on Saturday, 2nd June, 2012 at the Vicarage, St. Brides Major, to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 60 years' reign

John, Eileen and Meryl, who were members of the Three Villages Carnival Committee that had organised the events to celebrate the Millennium in 2000 and the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, reconvened to organise a Carnival and Street Parade to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty in 2012. 

Here's what happened in 2012!  

On Saturday, 16th June, 2012, there was a Carnival procession of vehicles and floats that travelled from Rivermouth at Ogmore-by-Sea via Southerndown to the cattle grid in St. Brides Major, at which point it turned around to go back through the village (here many people joined the Street Parade, including children from the school and Playgroup in fancy dress, along with Shetland pony & traps and Newfoundland Association dog & carriages) and finished in the field next door to the Vicarage on Southerndown Road.  An impromptu singsong began and continued throughout the journey with a change from the usual words of one ditty to "if you're happy and you know it, wave your flag" and, despite the occasional light rain shower, villagers came out along the route to cheer everyone on. 

Floats  included:

Carnival Queen, her Attendants and Page Boys, Cheerleaders, Coast Hair (at the beach),  Flowerpot Men and Little Weed, Play Aloud Group, Slade Farm Safari Trailer, Wild West Women of WI complete with Sheriff's Office.

Stalls  included:

Plants, various crafts such as hand-made cards and knitted items, jewellery, bric-a-brac, WI stand in aid of Brecon Mountain Rescue, food stalls, information stands. 

Displays, Demonstrations and Entertainment  included:

Pony Rides, Dancing Dogs with Susie Lindsay, St. Donat's Chorale Choir, Karate, Vintage Tractors, Steam Engines, Vintage Cars, Zumba dance, Roundabout, Swings, Shooting and a memorial Barry Jones Shield Tug-of-war Tournament which was won by the Farmers Arms. 

Refreshments  included: 

Teas & coffees, soft drinks, licensed bar, cream teas, ice cream, pasties, sandwiches, sweets. 

Other items  included:

Face painting, BBQ, beer tent, Lucky Programme Raffle.  Southerndown Life Savers, Coastguard, The Police, Fire Brigade & engine and St John's Ambulance were in attendance. 

Dancing till midnight   for all the adults with live music from local band Scarecrows and a disco with DJ Seymore.  There were refreshments and a licensed bar. 

And finally....... many thanks were sent to the committee for their hard work in organising this event, the volunteers and to those who turned up to help clear the field on Sunday morning.  Special thanks to CPD for the use of the field and equipment. 

 

 Main Carnivals Page  |  Carnival 2012  |  Carnival Gallery  |  Carnival Word Search Puzzle

 

Contributions to St. Brides Major, Southerndown and Ogmore-by-Sea web site are welcomed and may be sent via our Contact Us link or handed in to a member of staff in the Village Shop/Post Office in St. Brides Major, who have kindly agreed to pass them on.  Web site design and content including text, graphics, articles and photographs subject to copyright.  ©  Please remember mistakes can happen and there may be errors of which we are unaware; corrections, information and additional facts are gratefully received. 

The editors and owners of this web site reserve the right to remove, alter, or refuse to include, any link or contribution on this site, as they see fit.  Furthermore, they accept no responsibility in any way whatsoever for the content, accuracy or reliability of any other web sites mentioned or linked within these pages.  It is good practice to run anti-virus programme/s as well as to check sites, pages, and before downloading material; we cannot be held responsible for any losses or disruption to your computer, software, systems or data.