Alfreton Carnival 1931

Alfreton pulls out all the stops with a carnival to raise money for a Derbyshire hospital

The carnival parade captured in this wonderfully well-preserved film is brimful of colourful characters, with magnificently decked-out locals taking to the streets in all manner of fancy dress, from clowns to nurses and even a small child dressed as a snowball. The town's "big effort" for the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary raised at least £274 and was reported in the Derby Daily Telegraph as a "huge success".

A great deal of care has clearly gone into the elaborate floats and costumes, with the marchers including several clowns, an animated scarecrow and a young snowball (walking hand-in-hand with Britannia). For modern viewers the procession's charm is tempered, though, by one participant in 'minstrel' blackface. The film was produced for the Empire Cinema, which was open on the high street until 1975. It's not known who the filmmakers were, but they're no amateurs: the photography is crisp and clear, and camera positions are well-chosen to capture the flavour of the parade. At one point, a camera is mounted on a moving float, and we briefly see another cameraman shooting from the top of a parked car as the parade passes him by.