National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Pentrebach: Festival of Britain festivities
Uneasy lies the festival queen’s head that wears an upside down crown! But, coronation difficulties aside, the carnival goes with a swing.
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Overview
There’s many a slip twixt crown and head in Pentrebach today! The festival queen’s young page-girl finds it difficult to keep the crown on its cushion and her own head-gear ends up a bit skew-whiff. To top it all, the mayoress places the crown on the queen’s head upside down! But coronation duties aside, Pentrebach enjoys its carnival procession which sets off from a street of newly-built council houses and descends into the older streets where bunting abounds.
The Plymouth Hotel in Pentrebach plays a key role in the Festival of Britain carnival activities, the queen and her entourage leaving from it for the coronation and returning to it afterwards. The use of the name ‘Plymouth’, also applied to the local iron works, was due to the Earl of Plymouth owning land in the area. Interestingly, both this festival carnival and another a few miles away [see ‘Merthyr Vale and Aberfan: Festival of Britain festivities’] have the blacked-up slave/master characters which add a grim note to the proceedings.
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