This was my second visit to Worthing for Birdman, it’s hard to believe a year has passed since my previous visit. I prefer to attend on the second day, Sunday, for the Kingfisher Class as this is when crazy, fantastic people dress up and jump for charity. Unfortunately this year one brave soul was injured and needed hospital treatment.
This one day event is held twice a year in the normally tranquil town of Stow-on-the-Wold in the Gloucestershire Cotswold’s, attracting gypsies and travellers from throughout the UK with a few travelling from Ireland. History has it that an abbot petitioned for the fairs in 1476, The charters were granted for May 12th and October 24th – the fest days of Saints Philip and James and Edward the Confessor and these dates are still used today. I spent the day there met some very interesting folk and learnt a bit more about Gypsy culture and traditions. Enjoy the photographs.
Sunday is always Children and Family Day at the Notting Hill Festival. Come and see the fabulous youngsters all dressed up for the occassion and some teenagers with energy to spare!
Between 1909 and 1970 over fifty schooners, barges, and Severn trows were beached on the banks of the river Severn near the village of Purton in Gloucestershire in England in an attempt to stop further erosion following a severe storm in 1906. The vessels were tugged from Sheerness docks nearby on the Spring tides and pushed up onto the bank creating the largest boat graveyard on mainland Britain.
The annual “Birdman” event is now held at Worthing on the West Sussex coast in Southern England, a few miles along the coast from it’s previous home at Bognor Regis. This post consists, mostly, of photographs of the “lovely loonies”, the courageous folk that dress up and throw themselves off the elevated pier into the English Channel to raise money for their favourite charities. God bless ‘em!
© 2010 Tony Smith’s Festival and Travel Photography
