So, it's early on a Saturday morning, the 6th of September, 2014, in the start of one
of the biggest weekends in Morkham. Wayne Hemingway is inspired, vintage by the sea.
But it's a dull and damp morning when the people turn out in four to under.
The event is centred on the Midland Hotel and Platform areas, with one of the big attractions
being the vintage and classic cars.
Things initially got off to a slow start, but the old cars, and the not so old cars,
certainly proved a crowd puller.
Plenty of knowing glances.
These two were obviously taking their guarding duties seriously, and it was amazing how many
people dressed in vintage clothing, especially for the event.
Notice the ladies' hairstyles as well, doing no small part to this group over in the Platform's
hair and beauty salon.
Also in the Platform, the vintage fashion marketplace, full with so many stalls crammed
with racks of clothing crowded into such a small space.
There was also a vintage photographic studio, but somehow in the crush I missed it.
Outside the Platform, it was strange to see a double-decker London bus acting as a bar
and a disco.
And it was here that the drink was balanced by an array of food outlets, all in keeping
with the theme of the weekend.
Each time saw the Sustrans vintage bike ride take place from the Midland Hotel, and what
an array of cyclists rode along the promenade.
Mind you, a certain Scottish pair started, well almost started, but one of them felt
an urgent call of nature.
However, they were soon back again, and the spectators were surprised to see that their
flower-be-deck tricycle was actually a mobile tea bar, complete with gramophone, table and
chairs.
They and their tricycle certainly kept the crowd entertained.
In the Old Dome, Bubbles and Garden Airy was a vintage fairground and a small stage with
an array of performers, particularly these bobby socks.
Garden Airy was kept very busy for the whole weekend once the rain moved away.
In the Old Dome, Bubbles and Garden Airy was a vintage fairground and a small stage with
an array of performers, particularly these bobby socks.
As the sun came out, so did the people, and it wasn't long before the area around the
Midland Hotel and the Stone Jetty began to fill up.
The restored Art Deco Midland Hotel had a whole spectrum of activities going on, ranging
from an old-fashioned tea dance, complete with a boater-topped master of ceremonies and a
bar.
To a highly popular design craft and maker's market.
What a variety of stalls.
Flower crafts, craft maker's training courses, walk-and-heritage,
and the traditional knitting circle.
There's no wonder that the airy was crowded for the whole weekend.
By two o'clock on Saturday the sun was out, the blue sky bedecked with fluffy white clouds,
and the promenade and Stone Jetty crowded with thousands of people and children, all
waiting expectantly to see the Breatling Wing Walker, but they didn't show up due to bad
weather.
So why do people come to a weekend like this?
Is it because it's pure nostalgia, or do they genuinely love the old cars?
It's amazing how many ladies have come where they've had their hair done in the 1940s style,
and many, many people have come in fancy dress from the 1920s to the 1940s.
I wonder what the organisers think of having a vintage by the sea.
Tell me, why did you decide to come to Morkham and set something up?
It came from the fact that we did a big vintage event as part of Preston Guild in 2012, and
we met a team of people there who helped us deliver it, who were fantastic, and obviously
Preston is reasonably local, it's Lancashire, but two of the girls that worked with us,
Lauren and Eleanor, were from Morkham, and they just said, we need to do this in Morkham.
You were born here, you were brought up here for the first few years of your life, it suits
the Midland, it suits the winter gardens, it suits the heritage element of Morkham,
let's do vintage by the sea.
That was it, just a simple conversation, and we thought, we went to talk to the Midland,
we knew it was their 80th anniversary, so that gave us a reason for them to get involved,
and good things happened like that, don't they?
It was a big success, so we talked to the council and said, shall we try and make it
into a two day, much bigger event, and make it more, not just around the Midland, but
around the prom of Morkham, and they put a bit of Lancashire Council, Morkham Council
put a bit of funding in, and that helped to pump Prime what we're doing today.
That's a bit surprising, because the town council are not renowned here for actually
bumping money into events, are they?
Well, they have supported, as far as I know, I'm not going to talk about the political
side of it, because I don't know about the political side of it, but they've supported
this, and like a lot of councils, they realise that by helping to put on events that make
people happy and bring people together, it creates happiness, it creates that feeling
of generosity which towns need, but it also brings investment in, you know, people are
busy here, you know, people are running little businesses, the Midlands packed, I'm sure
that people are making money out of selling food and drink, the Winter Gardens makes
its money, obviously the hotels I think have been told, this is the biggest occupancy in
living memory, we knew that two or three days ago we were at 92% occupancy, we're more
come hasn't experienced that in a long time.
Have you used the same format in other places as you have here in Morkham?
Yeah, I mean, to an extent, a lot of it's tried and tested, you know, we haven't done
a vintage bike ride before, which we did with Sustrans, we haven't done a vintage pooch
parade, you know, getting people to dress up their dogs, so there's a lot of new elements
here, but there are other elements, like a lot of the night club events and the DJs
that we're using, we know that it works, but we're using a lot of local talent as well,
and you're never quite sure, but they're all rising to the challenge.
Finally, I know you're a big supporter of the heritage in Morkham, what do you think
needs to be done?
Well, heritage is important, but you know, to me, I don't look at this as about nostalgia,
I think you can have your nostalgia, I remember M'Nan going on the West End Pier and the Central
Pier, I remember M'Nan dancing on there, I remember being paraded up and down the prom
at the carnivals and me dressed like, me dressed like Tarzan, all of that's nostalgia and fine,
but what a town has to do is move forward, and it should respect the past, I think the
Midland has done that very well, you know, it feels very modern, but it also respects
its heritage, what Morkham needs is totally cool, young people in their twenties and their
thirties, preferably, deciding right, we're going to open a really great contemporary
café here that's as good as anything that's happening in Manchester or London, that doesn't
just concentrate on doing things the way that it used to be, but the way that young people
expect it to be, and that's what Morkham is missing at the moment, you know, you know,
it's got bits of heritage, but it really needs to marry that now with some serious, it needs
to create a new modern heritage, it needs to create, be doing things now, that in thirty
years people will be looking back on and think, wasn't it great, and it's still great, and
you know, that's the next step, we've got to do that with Frontierland, it's not got
to be just another space, it's got to be something that's creating, it's got to aim
for the standards at the Midlands set back in the 1930s. Well there you have it, the
organisers themselves, I think it's a wonderful event, it's the second year that it's happened
and it really has been very, very successful, I'm recording this on the Sunday afternoon
and yesterday was good, but today is even better, you can see by the thousands of people
that are out here, and today we've got Eric Morkham's car actually arrived as well, plus
one that was linked to Albert Modley, another one of the comedians associated with Morkham.
Right Peter, tell me about the car. Well this is Eric Morkham's first Rolls Royce, it was
built for him in 1971, it was specially built to his order with ashtray for his pipe and
also special carpeting for it, because he was a bird watcher and he had a special seat
put into it because he didn't want to dirty the leather, and it was just generally made
to his specification and it stayed like that ever since.
So how long have you had the car Peter? I found the car in a strap yard in Shrewsbury
about four years ago, and the challenge was to bring it back to life. When I found it,
it was in a very sad state and it wasn't known that it had belonged to Eric, it was only
through a friend of mine that worked at Rolls Royce a crew in the special features department
and he was able to, I told him about the car when I'd found it and he traced its history
and told me it had been built for Eric Morkham, so without any more ado I went down and bought
it straight away and brought it back because it's part of our heritage here in Morkham.
But not only in Morkham have we got the car, or rather you having car and forth, but we've
also got the driver of it, haven't we Morkham? Yeah well that's a lovely story, when I researched
all its paperwork and went to the DVLA and got all the original paperwork, I had the
original bill of sale in the documentation and it was signed by one M Fountain and he
had gone along to Jack Barclays in London and bought the vehicle on behalf of Eric
and he'd signed for it and I looked all over the country to find this Mike Fountain and
I found him living in Morkham opposite the Eric Morkham statue because he used to love
coming up here and he eventually settled here because he enjoyed it so much, he's a Londoner
and he came here because he loved it so much. Well it's in beautiful condition I have to
admit that, but next door to you you've got something else as well, haven't you? Yeah
well we've got Alba Modley's car, or a car similar to what Alba Modley would have driven,
that would have been, he would have been 18 when that was new, so it's quite special,
it brings the era and of course Albert was one of Eric Morkham's heroes, he really did
learn a lot from Albert and therefore we've got him here today, bringing sunshine and
promoting Morkham. So what do you think about this weekend then Peter? It's lovely to see
all the people here looking at the vintage cars but bringing the atmosphere, it's not
the cars that they're coming to see, it's the atmosphere and it brings everybody from
Bond mini cars to Rolls Royces, you can't have a better can you? It's quite a range
here outside the middle of dinners afternoon. Yeah you've got so many characters here and
so many lovely cars and I think the Chevrolet is the oldest, I think it is, 1918. Nearby
it was standing room only for the traditional punch and duty show and the adults seem to
be enjoying it as much as the children. Wayne Hemingway compared a best in show competition.
We've done these events, this is about our 12th vintage festival, we've done lots in
London and this is one of the best line-ups I've ever seen, I think it's fantastic. So
I'm finding it struggling to pick one winner, so I'll think about it for a minute. Fantastic
line-up but we're going to give the first one away for the other one to come to this
family here. Where are you from? I'm already from South Korea, I live in Manchester now.
Are you together, have you come together? No, he's my friend. But you've come together
to this. The other winners are this lovely couple here, come forward. Vintage by the
sea, I think the climax for today will be the flyover of the two Lancasters, Vera and
the one from the Battle of Britain flight. On Sunday afternoon, the area around the stone
jetty was packed to capacity, ready to see the only two remaining flying Lancaster bombers
in the world's stage of life past. As Vera, who had flown all the way from Canada and
the Battle of Britain Lancaster approached, the crowd burst into spontaneous applause,
proud of their heritage, paying homage to all the brave aircrew who gave their lives
in World War II. The planes, their distinct Merlin engines roaring away, came, flew past
and then they were gone, and left behind tens of thousands of disappointed people expecting
more. Without doubt, Wayne Hemingway's vintage by the sea has proved a great success. It
is just a shame that I couldn't fit everything into this short programme. It's estimated
that 40,000 people supported it over two days. Shops, pubs and cafes were full, hotels with
a 92% occupancy rate. It proved to be a great financial boost for the businesses in impoverished
Morkham, just as the carnival was a few weeks before. So come on Lancaster Morkham councils,
give more financial support to these major events, and businesses get more involved.
Morkham has little to offer except its magnificent promenade, but now independent event organisations
have proved that they can bring in tens of thousands of people, enjoying themselves as
they throng the promenade, the scale of which in 2014 has not been seen for decades.
