Fanfare of brass bands and fireworks

Feb 27 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

IT would have been impossible yesterday to match the sort of procession which in 1890 marked the opening of the park.

It included the band of the Wellesley naval training ship, the South Shields Pilots Association, Volunteer Life Brigade, the Knights of Labour, the Ancient Order of Druids, the Ancient and United Orders of Free Gardeners, the Oddfellows Friendly Society, Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes and Green’s Sailor Boys Home.

But that paled against the firework display in 1932 to mark the visit of the battleship HMS Malaya to the Tyne. The warship had been built at Elswick on the Tyne and an event was laid on at the park for the crew, including outdoor dancing to the ship’s band.

A crowd of 75,000 turned up and, according to reports “packed the park to suffocation” as police struggled to keep order and lawns and flower beds were destroyed by trampling.

The next big event was for King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935, when lavish costume pageants were held in the park over a week to depict 10 stages in the history of South Shields, and the town’s Unemployed Drama group staged The Merchant of Venice.

Illuminations over 17 days in 1935 also drew more than 75,000 paying customers.