The First Whitstable Carnival took place in 1897, but Carnival itself is much older than that.
The word is from the Latin “carne levare” meaning “leaving meat”. In the Middle Ages it traditionally took place around Shrovetide, when the winter stores were used up in one final blow-out feast before the rigours of Lent. Later Carnivals adopted the format but altered the time.
Our Whitstable Carnival is a more modest affair, although, looking at old photos – such as those in the Douglas West collection, currently held in the fantastic Whitstable Museum and Gallery – you can see that people did whatever they could to make it as fun and as exciting as possible.
So far it has survived two world wars and a pandemic. We hope that it will continue for many years to come.
Historic Photographs of the Carnival from the West Collection.
Douglas West moved to Whitstable with his father Stephen in 1914. Douglas took over the Whitstable Photographers (now the Bruce Williams Gallery) in 1946 after serving as a photographer in WW2. Douglas West collected many images of Whitstable as early as 1857 and donated all his non-family photographs to Whitstable Museum in 1997.
The Museum holds 1500 photographs in the Douglas West Collection. The catalogues may be viewed by the public when the museum is open and copies purchased to aid museum funds.
Here’s a slideshow from the Douglas West Collection that features historical photos of our Carnival. Hit play, sit back and enjoy!
We would like to thank:
We hope that it will continue for many more years to come. Our thanks go out to the two Carols, Sims and Simmonds, and to all the other members of the previous Carnival Association, who kept the tradition going through the years. In February 2019 they retired en masse. After that a new bunch of enthusiasts took over. The 2019 Carnival was our first attempt at running such an event, and by all accounts the town approved of our efforts.
For the Whitstable Team Ministry for the blessings and Justin & Emily of Total PapFor their wonderful creatures: http://totalpap.co.uk/
The film of Whitstable Carnival was shot on Std 8 film by Jumbo (George) Gisby, a keen amateur filmmaker, who was a taxi driver in Whitstable. Text by CJ Stone. Thanks to James Light of James Light TV for putting this together: http://jameslight.tv/