Museums

Following the industrial revolution, people found themselves with more free time and annual fairs became popular social events.During the 1900s Northampton introduced the Town Show at Abington Park, Northampton Carnival, originally a cycle parade, and ball bearing manufacturers British Timken held their own annual agricultural show.

As their popularity decreased in the early 2000s, many shows and festivals stopped. The Carnival and Town Show have been brought back in recent years, to bring communities closer together. The Carnival display in the We Are Northampton exhibition consists of a selection of bicycles ridden by Mr Higgerson’s Trick Cyclists in the Northampton Carnivals in 1950-1969,  a map of the Carnival route which started at Midsummer Meadow and ended in Abington Park, 1950s-1979, an assortment of Carnival programmes outlining the events throughout the Carnival, Carnival rosettes awarded to participants in the Carnival parade, the Carnival Queen crown worn each year by the selected Carnival Queen, and costumes worn in parades of recent years.