An old photograph of Billingham Folklore Festival. The tradition of the Billingham Folklore Festival started in 1965. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
An old photograph of Billingham Folklore Festival. The tradition of the Billingham Folklore Festival started in 1965.
Picture Stockton Archive 
The Billingham Arms had a dance most Sundays and during the one dance the Israel younger performers came. We tried dancing with the girls who were gorgeous but, the young Israeli guys stopped the girls and it almost came to blows. The Israeli guys were army trained we, ICI trained.
This would have been 1965-66 time period. Oh to be young again.
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This was a very memorable time in my life as my Father in law used to play in Billingham Brass band as well as my husband, Bill Charlton Jnr, which was always part of the festival. My father in law used to transcript the music for various Folk Groups that came over. His name was William Charlton, does anyone remember him? Sadly he passed away many years ago. This was a very happy event for my family, the kids loved it as it always ended with a firework display.
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I was present somewhere in the vicinity if this photo was actually taken in 1965, as a guest of honour because my girlfriend at the time, Anne Marie Burns, won the Miss Folk Festival contest for that year and I was her escort. For the whole week we were chauffeur-driven to the various events and dinners with the local dignitaries, a bit of an experience for a couple of young kids! I specifically remember the Estonian dancing troupe shown, as well as the Hungarian and Irish folk singing groups that were part of the festival.
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The Folk week always started on the Saturday of the Billingham show week then, when they used to have all Marquees in the park, it used to be a brilliant weekend and it used to be a tanner for children& the old folk. Regarding the Fish pond on this photo brought back one big memory ,I got helped out that fishpond by two nice policemen on my Stag night whislt stuck in an asda trolley, they even took me home to make sure I got home safe – bet they had a good laugh telling the lads back at the station what happend. I found out on my wedding day what they had planned for me, it was a toss up between the fishpond or the overnight to Kings Cross.
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This is taken adjacent to the old fish pond and fountains. The covered walkway areas are pictured. The festival was normally held in August – as you can see from the clothes being worn by the spectators we were enjoying our usual summer weather!
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