WHEN a Cavalcade of Bolton took place in 1938, it was to celebrate the centenary of the town becoming a borough.

It was in the form of a massive show in Queens Park held on seven dates in September, beginning on September 10 which, you may have realised, is exactly 64 years ago today.

It has been brought to my notice by Mr Roy Walmsley, of Regent Road, Lostock, who has lent me an original programme for the event (and also a 1953 annual about the F.A. Cup, but more of that later).

Over the years I have printed memories from readers about the Cavalcade, but the programme

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gives many more details.

It was billed as "A Historical Entertainment", produced by Eva Callebaut (who also arranged the dances and ensembles, but the dancers were actually trained by Miss Frances Bleasdale and Miss Dorrie Horne) - and the cast "involved 1,250 Bolton Citizens". You can just imagine the problems trying to get so many people doing the right thing at the right time!

The Centenary Orchestra was made up of 46 musicians, and played music prior to the beginning of the Cavalcade show. As if that wasn't enough, there was also a Cavalcade Orchestra of 21 musicians, under the direction of Joe Hill, musical director at Bolton's Grand Theatre.

The history of the town was told in music and dialogue, called episodes, and started with The Charter, then The Plug Drawing Riots, The Star Inn, Cavalcade of Dancing, The Hustings, William Hesketh Lever, Cotton Interlude, War Comes to Bolton.

Then it was time to move on: "Now it is to YOUTH we turn . . . . The Youth of Today . . . the Youth of Tomorrow . . . and all the other Tomorrows yet to come! It is they who must carry on the Torch of Life which we pass on to them. It is Youth who must don the shining armour of high endeavour and strive mightily for the future." (Little could they have realised that the following year war would break out and many of those youths would perish).

Numerous local youth groups were there, including scouts and guides associations, the YMCA, Lads Club, but also, among others, Whitecroft Road Senior Girls' Netball Team, Bolton Motor Cycle Club, the Bolton Sunday School Social League, the Church Lads' Brigade, Bolton Battalion, and Eagley Mills Girls' Hockey Club.

The dancers were named in the programme under Ladies, and Gentlemen, and others who were taking part in a general sense named under a section "Crowds, Mill Hands, Darkies, Waiters, Minstrels, Workpeople."

It was, as you can imagine, a massive piece of organisation, but obviously very successful.

The paper of the time said: "As entertainment it was surprisingly good, and it will live in the memory of this civic centenary year as one of the most popular features of celebrations that are to extend over several months. The setting was almost ideal for a spectacle of the kind. There was an appropriate attractiveness about the widely sweeping stage, backed by a bank of gently moving trees in which coloured lights twinkled under a canopy of dark blue sky, and this and the audience of about 3,000 people, rising tier above tier in front, in the deepening darkness, made an impressive sight and gave the sense of a memorable occasion."

The other booklet, as I said before, was the 1953 F.A. Cup annual, but was not a programme for the actual match (which, let's be honest, because Blackpool beat the Wanderers most of us would probably rather forget).

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It was produced by a firm called Day & Mason, who also published such other books such as the "Day and Mason Cricket Annual", the "Day & Mason Boxing Annual" and the "Day & Mason Speedway Annual".

Included in the annual were pictures of the last 16 teams in the Cup that year, so it obviously came out some time before the Wembley final. Its articles included "A Woman's Point of View" - "I do think more ladies would accompany their husbands, and girls their boyfriends, to football matches if a little more thought could be given to their comfort. After all, I've sat in many a grandstand, at 3/6 upwards, on the space intended for someone else's feet, and got my coat muddied into the bargain."

There were also "Odds and Ends about F.A. Cup Finals", "Did Football start in China long ago?", and "That Momentous first Wembley Final", which, of course, is the famous White Horse Final when Bolton beat West Ham United.

Two very different books from Mr Walmsley, but very interesting in their different ways.