Once again this weekend Tamworth Borough Council will be delivering another fantastic Free event to celebrate St. Georges Day, whilst reading the promotional material I remembered the difficulty we had getting the event started. This year the thought of a bank holiday for to celebrate our patron saint also crossed my mind and how would it possibly have fit into Easter, royal weddings and may bank holidays.
Tamworth has for years had St Georges day celebrated with the kind help of local volunteers in St Editha's square and not only were we grateful for what they did we also didn't want to take that away from them( I would name them but I'm really not good with names and have forgotten them, the gent that runs the cooked meat stall in the indoor market organised most of it). When I was leader of the council the now leader of the council came to me and said we should look at doing something about celebrating St. Georges Day and off we went to discuss it with officers at the council. the initial response we got was not as positive as we had expected but was based on common sense. Once again the proposals of a pair of 30 something year olds had been clouded by the behaviour of others in other areas in the past and the hijacking of St. Georges Day by shall we say fascism. This left us with a small problem, how to push the idea further without causing trouble or providing opportunity for trouble
St George's Day in Tamworth has become a great family day of celebration, this is the theme that Tamworth Borough Council strives for in all its outdoor events, they are about bringing the people of Tamworth together to celebrate our history. Over the last few years we have seen one and two days events, activities in the old lido building, civil war re enactments and so much more. The thing I love about all of this is that in Tamworth St George's Day is really an annual celebration as are other patron saints in Wales and Ireland etc and they are a family affair.
The reason we can do this is down to some clear determination from politicians and a can do attitude from staff at Tamworth Borough Council.
I'm looking forward to taking the kids to the Castle Grounds this weekend and hope to see many other families in Tamworth enjoying the weather and free event,
Have a good weekend.
Thanks to Tina McBain and Ian Gibobns for reminding me, John Westwood was the man I was thinking of who helped run the St. Georges Day celebrations in St. Edithas Square.
ReplyDeleteHe also gave a lecture for one of Tina and Ian's afternoon lectures they organised to try and use the tent top when others wrote it off.
Correction:---
ReplyDeleteI have just been told that I have my information wrong.
It was in fact Ian Gibbons that created the St. Georges day Celebrations in St Editha's Square.
Apologies Ian