Oral history interview with Sandra Stopher and Michael Higginson by Charlotte Dickerson on 13/03/2013 for the Carnival Archive Project. www.carnivalarchive.org.uk.

Charlotte: It’s the 13th of March 2013 and if you would like to introduce yourselves?
Sandra: Hello my name is Sandra, I’m the granddaughter of Fred Higginson, who used to own a cycle shop in Grafton Street.
Michael: Who made all the cycles. And I’m Michael Higginson, I’m the grandson of Fred Higginson. Granddad, or Pap we called him, made all the bikes and we rode in the carnival parades practically every year. In Northampton Carnival Parade. I think we may have missed one for some reason but I was in the carnivals from the age of about 4 I think up, up until the carnival was more or less finished in whatever year that may have been.
1.07
Sandra: Well pap died in 1977 didn’t he? So did we go in after Pap died?
Michael: Probably not.
Sandra: So, I think it was up until about when the carnival finished. Where he got inspiration from to make the bikes I’m never quite sure because whoever could think of making a bike out of a dustbin (both laugh) must have a really good imagination!
1.30
Charlotte: What other sorts of bikes did he make for the Carnival?
Sandra: He made one out of a bedstead.
Michael: He made two or three out of bedsteads.
Sandra: He made a Double Decker.
Michael: Just out of various bits. Dustbin. Penny Farthing. He actually made a proper Penny Farthing, that I’ve still got. That was back in the day when Penny Farthings were being built anyway so I’ve got an original Fred Higginson Penny Farthing, or we have.
Sandra: And we’ve also got what they call a Ha’penny Farthing which is a smaller version, which we still ride and my partner rode in an event just recently, and won a prize for fancy dress!
02.24
Charlotte: So the bikes are still being ridden?
Sandra: Yes. When we can we ride them but we’re hoping to go in the Carnival, I was going to ask you about the lady who is doing it so that I can get in touch with her to find out about perhaps just taking a couple of bikes in, just reminding me (laughs).
02.43.
Charlotte: So Fred made bikes for a living as well did he?
Michael: Yes, he built bikes, mended buckled wheels, various cycle jobs, as a living.
Sandra: And Dad also, he did it as well didn’t he?
Michael: Yes, building wheels and such like. Mending punctures for kids. Dad’s bike is probably the most famous of the lot because he wore stilts. He rode one that was eleven or twelve foot high.
03.27
Sandra: And I used to make all his costumes for him.
Charlotte: What sort of costumes were they?
Sandra: Well he had various ones, gold lamé ones, check ones, various sorts but they were just so big, the legs were so long that it was just really difficult. Yeah, I got that job, making them. That’s in the Museum isn’t it, his gold lamé coat?
Michael: His gold lame coat is yeah. I don’t know what’s happened to his trousers.
Sandra: I don’t know about the trousers but I used to make all his things for him, bless him.
04.00
Charlotte: So, I heard about the Higginson Troupe, I just wondered if you could tell me a bit about that?
Michael: Well that is us. Pap, Dad who was a real sort of focal point because of the bikes he got out, myself, Richard our brother rode in it, Sandra rode in them, when they got old enough that is.
Sandra: I never did master a unicycle.
Michael: And then various friends of all of us really. I had some friends join us for a short time. Pap and Dad did have various people.
Sandra: Like George Twiselton.
Michael: I could perhaps go through a few of them. There was George Harrison, his two sons Pete and David, Phil Eady who we called Curly, George Twiselton, Alan Roberts.
Sandra: Reg Scauldwell.
Michael: Alan Roberts used to ride the little Penny Farthing. Yes Reg Scauldwell, who dressed as a school teacher most of the time I think.
Sandra: For some reason. Never quite got that one, why he used to wear a mortar board and a cape but then you go.
Michael: There was Don who dressed as a woman (both laugh).
Sandra: They were strange people even in them days.
Michael: George Twiselton is still in touch with Don but he only came to the Northampton Carnivals, we didn’t hear from him from one to the next and then suddenly he’d appear. But most of us did them all over the county, all the near carnivals around.
Sandra: Kettering, Wellingborough, Rushden. We went to Rotherham, Hoddersden, Southampton, no Southend , The Lord Mayor’s Show, we did the Lord Mayor’s Show in London.
06.25
Michael: Around Battersea Park.
Sandra: We opened the new Southbank Theatre didn’t we? Well we entertained the crowds for the Queen! Dad whatsited a riot didn’t he? Because they had the protesters, that’s their claim to fame anyway, they got the protesters out and Dad was making everybody whatsit for the Queen and they were all anti-queen. See I remember them things. Don’t you remember? The protestors were out for some reason and the Queen was there.
Michael: I just remember performing before the queen. Before she got there. (both laugh) Claim to fame!
07.05
Charlotte: So what did it feel like to be on these bikes and be in the carnival?
Michael: It was just sort of exhilarating really. People laughing and clapping. It was great.
Sandra: Brilliant fun.
Michael: A wonderful way to spend a childhood really.
Sandra: We did, we had a brilliant childhood.
Charlotte: Was there any accidents or was it all quite safe?
Michael: Not really. Dad fell off his stilts a couple of times.
Sandra: Apparently there was a bit in the paper about that, Kerry said.
Michael: Oh was there?  Long way to fall but he survived. I don’t think he really hurt himself.
Sandra: Broke his arm I think.
Michael: Yes he landed on his hands. I can’t think of any other accidents.
Sandra: They were quite good really, all the falling over we used to do in the shows, when we used to go off and do the little shows for people and that, it’s a wonder because Dad used to fall around no end didn’t he?
Michael: Ah, all part of the act.
Sandra: Yeah (laughs). Falling off, part of the act!
08.21
Charlotte: So you mentioned the Southbank. I was just wondered if there was any other performances other than at carnivals or was it just for the carnivals that you performed?
Michael: Only at fetes.
Sandra: Yes, at fetes and that sort of thing. We did St. Crispin’s once and things like that. People used to write to dad and say would you come to our village fete and off we used to trundle.
Michael: We had a pretty much a set routine. Mainly Dad and Pap, partially me because I could ride a unicycle so I was in it a bit more than a lot of the others. The others just started and finished on the carnival bikes. We had this routine involving unicycles and various routines between Dad and Pap and myself.
9.14
Charlotte: So did you always ride the same bikes and have the same costumes or did it change?
Michael: Well I tended to stick with one when I got older but I had just an ordinary bike with crepe paper wrapped around it and something in the wheels to make clacking noises and I was dressed as a clown. I was about four then. Then I had one made especially for me by Pap. I lay down on the tummy and the peddles were out the back, that was quite a nice little bike, not sure what happened to that.
Sandra: I had a little bouncer one that I rode when I was little.
Michael: Somebody made me a little Teddy Boy outfit, I remember that.
Sandra: Might have been me. Mum wouldn’t have made you anything because Mum couldn’t sew.
Michael: Somebody did though, it wouldn’t have been you because you were too young. I sort of went through various phases; I rode the Penny Farthing a number of times with a top hat and tails on. I rode the unicycle a round once or twice. My favourite one was probably one of the Midgets that was extended. It was a very small bike but the saddle was extended and the handlebars were extended. I quite enjoyed riding that; I think I probably ended my days of riding on that.
11.11
Charlotte: Do you know where he got the ideas for these bikes from? Or was he just experimenting?
Michael: No idea.
Sandra: No, I mean there are some drawings on the back of some of the pictures that we’ve had so whether it was just inspiration and he just suddenly thought of something?
Michael: I think he didn’t like throwing stuff away so he made things out of it. (both laugh).
Sandra: He made bikes out of it. His house was absolutely full of things.
Michael: Cog wheels and things. He’d make ornaments.
Sandra: And brass balls stuck on top of everything. And they were all painted gold with red splodges and things on them. (laughs).
Michael: I’m not sure if that was because he was colour blind as well (laughs).
Sandra: Dad was colour blind. He was dreadful, absolutely dreadful.
12.07
Charlotte: So was your Mother or your Grandmother every involved in riding the bikes or did they just leave it to their husbands?
Michael: We’ve got that picture of Dad and Mum.
Sandra: Yeah, I think that’s about the only time I’ve ever seen her on a bike.
Michael: I can’t remember her doing that either.
Sandra: Our Nan died when I was four so I don’t remember her.
Michael: I vaguely remember her. But only at Grafton Street, making toast by the fire.
Sandra: With dripping on! (Michael laughs). On a brass toasting fork.
Michael: Yeah.
12.42
Charlotte: So how long did Fred have the shop in Grafton Street for?
Michael: (To Sandra) Go on, you’re the historian.
Sandra: Ever since I was born. I mean I can probably find that out.
Michael: Certainly before I was born. I can’t remember when he was chucked out. When they widened Grafton Street and knocked it down, I suppose. Just before that it was. He moved  into a similar sort of premises across the road.
Sandra: In Harding Street.
Michael: So all the bikes went along with him.
Sandra: But not the roundabout that we still haven’t found.
13.33
Charlotte: On Carnival day itself, what was that like? Was there much rehearsal before the day on the bikes?
(Both laugh)
Sandra: No.
Michael: Pap would make sure the bikes were okay, sort of rideable. Blow the tyres up possibly and stuff like that. But then we would all just turn up at Grafton Street, all have a little get together in the living room. Wait for the lorry to turn up.
Sandra: That was always Charlie wasn’t it? With his lorry from Butts. Always had the same man drive us, bless him.
Michael: I always thought that was Charlie Butt.
Sandra: So did I but apparently it wasn’t (both laugh). But we used to call him Charlie because it was the Butt lorry I think.
Michael: We’d load them all on the back of the lorry, we’d get on the back of the lorry and off we’d go to where ever we were going. Northampton Carnival or wherever.
Sandra: Nobody really had cars back in those days. I can’t believe we used to go on the back of lorries.
Michael: I’m not sure it was legal (Sandra laughs), perhaps you shouldn’t print that (both laugh).
14.41
Charlotte: So after you’d finished performing, did you go out to celebrate or anything?
Michael: well, it was the same thing. We’d load all the bikes onto the back on Butts lorry and invariably stop off at the pub on the way back, wherever. We had favourite pubs I suppose because we went to certain carnivals most years. It was the Jolly Chrispin in Northampton wasn’t it?
Sandra: Yes. In Wellingborough it was the one on the main road… But I always remember Pap riding his unicycle in the yard as well down Grafton Street, practicing.
Michael: Oh yeah, Pap would practice every morning on the unicycle in an upstairs room and on the miniature bikes. Although he was over 6ft tall he could still ride these miniature bikes which were about 12 inches. So he kept himself fit, it was a bit of an exercise regime.
15.50
Charlotte: So it has always been part of the family has it? Performing?
Sandra: Oh yes.
Michael: As I say, we don’t know where he got it from.
Charlotte: So there was no one before Fred who performed?
Michael: Not to my knowledge.
Sandra: No. So whether Ray got it from Pap or whether it was…
Michael: It must have been because Pap was doing it before Ray was born.
16.30
Charlotte: Do you have any other memories of Northampton Carnival, other than being in it on the bikes? Anything you remember about it?
Sandra: It used to take forever to go round. It used to stop start stop start. (laughs).
Michael: It was a very long carnival. The route took us from Midsummer Meadow, then where did it go?
Sandra: Up Chain Walk.
Michael: Yeah, from the Meadow, up Chain Walk, down St. Giles’ Street, up Northcote?
Sandra: It’s all changed you see.
Michael: Where Debenhams is.
Sandra: The Drapery. Up the Drapery and then it would have gone…?
Michael: Sheep Street.
Sandra: Lady’s Lane.
Michael: Yeah, Lady’s Lane, no down to…
Sandra: Regents Square. Up the Mounts.
Michael: Up the Mounts, along Bailiff Street. Down Somerset Street. Down Military Road. Along Clare Street. Down Overstone Road. Down St. Michael’s Road to Abington Square and then up the Wellingborough Road to Abington Park. And the start would be finishing at Abington Park before the end left Midsummer Meadow, it was that long.
18.05
Charlotte: Was there anything at Abington Park, once it had finished?
Michael: Prize giving I think.
Sandra: Around the Bandstand.
Michael: We tended to just finish, load up and go, get to the pub (both laugh). Pap used to treat us, all of us for about half a crown, it was I think?
Sandra: Yeah.
Charlotte: Did you win many prizes?
Michael: We won most years. Either first prize or perhaps we got second prize when the Invicta outfit come along.
18.49
Charlotte: Is there anything else you’d like to say? Anything else about the Carnival or the Higginson Troupe?
Sandra: I did go in with my Auntie, Emily Higginson. She used to push a bike around and I was dressed as a little Dutch girl and she’d got a windmill on a bike that Pap had made her.
Michael: No, I made that.
Sandra: You made that? Did you?
Michael: I think I’ve still got it somewhere.
Sandra: What the windmill? I didn’t know that. Yes, so I went in with my Auntie, she went in a few times didn’t she. We always seem to forget Aunt Emma because she didn’t ride the bikes but she used to take a bike in and walk round.
Michael: She was Pap’s sister.
Sandra: So I suppose she was part of us really.
Michael: She did her own thing at the Carnival, she wasn’t part of our…
Sandra: No. But she was a Higginson. So we did keep it in the family. My daughter actually rode in a few things and so did your two daughters (to Michael) didn’t they?
Michael: Did they?
Sandra: Yes! You’ve got Michelle or Leanne on your shoulders in one of the pictures.
Michael: But not in the Carnival.
Sandra: No, but in the shows. In the shows, they went in. We dragged them all in. It’s a bit of heritage that is getting lost. But I definitely want that lady’s name so I can get in touch with her.
Charlotte: It would be wonderful to see the bikes in the Carnival again, definitely.
20.25
Sandra: Well the people who had the other two off of us, they keep saying they’re going to take them in but they’ve never done it. Barry’s quite keen; he’s got mine back together. He’s actually put the brakes back in so I can actually ride it now. I can stop on it.
Michael: I’m at the stage where I’m almost regretting parting with them all, and giving them to the museum. Although, I suppose if we hadn’t done some of this wouldn’t have been taking place.
Sandra: It’s a shame really that they wouldn’t let us take a few out to put in the Carnival. Just as a sort of…
Michael: Perhaps they would? I don’t know whether they would, I don’t know.
Sandra: Even if it was just a one off outing with them, just to say ‘Look! This is what it used to be!’. But it wouldn’t be this year because you’re (to Michael) in Australia anyway.
Charlotte: It would definitely be nice to see them back in Northampton Carnival.
Sandra: Yes.
Michael: We sort of thought it had all died a death really because the Carnival is not really a carnival anymore.
Sandra: Not like we used to know.
Michael: Not by our standards. It’s very short, on a Saturday afternoon.
Sandra: Because it used to be a Thursday evening, when we used to do it. It used to be a Thursday evening thing.
Michael: Good times.
Sandra: Yes, it was good times.
Charlotte: Thank you for sharing all your memories with us today.
Sandra: It’s funny how much you remember, isn’t it?