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Rushden Echo, May 1907, transcribed by Greville Watson
Northamptonshire Agricultural Show at Rushden 1907
The End of the Show

FIREWORKS AND TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION AT RUSHDEN

As announced last week, the firework display arranged to be given in connection with the Northamptonshire Agricultural Show at Rushden was unavoidably postponed on account of the miserably wet weather. Thousands of the inhabitants of the town, with large contingents from the neighbouring towns and villages, assembled last Saturday night.  The proceedings commenced with a procession from the railway bridge to the show field on the Wymington Road, and an immense crowd lined the route. The Mission Band headed the procession, and at the Church was joined by the Rushden Fire Brigade, Higham Fire Brigade, Irthlingborough Brigade, Rushden Church Lads' Brigade, Rushden Boys' Life-saving Brigade, all carrying torches. The spectacle formed by the procession, with the lights reflected from the polished helmets of the firemen, was brilliant.

As the field was approached the crowd became denser, and the Wymington Road was impassable for some time owing to the crush. Messrs W and J Wilder, of Birmingham, had been entrusted with the order for the firework display, and an excellent exhibition of pyrotechny was the result, the general opinion being expressed that the display was the best yet given in the town. There were set pieces together with rockets, roman candles, serpents, whistling rockets, maroons, artificial lightning, fountains of fire, etc, in profusion. Balloons were to have been set up, but this part of the programme had to be abandoned owing to the strong wind. All through the firework display rain clouds hovered round, but there was little rain, and the clouds actually enhanced the display, some of the rockets passing right through them and re-appearing as showers of coloured stars.

At the conclusion of the display the procession was re-formed and, accompanied by the Band, marched through High Street to the railway bridge. Thence the processionists returned to the Coffee Tavern, where a verse of the National Anthem was played as a signal for dispersal. The visiting firemen and the members of the lads' brigades were afterwards entertained at the Fire Station by the Rushden Brigade.


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