Pub pram race and Nov 5th bonfire, Ham Common – by MG

The Pram Race once a year, and obviously it was men pushed the pram and then they had a man in the pram dressed up as a baby with a hat and all that on.  They pushed the pram round the Common and they stopped at the Hand and Flower and had a drink, then went round across to the New Inn, then down and… then to who won, who did it the quickest and won.  Later on, there was a tug-of-war through Ham Pond. It wasn’t obviously as deep as it is now and that was a very big event.  Also Bonfire Night, had a very big bonfire on the Common and Cellons was the paint factory up on the Richmond Road… Mind you, when you think about it now, they used to have a lot of oil drums of stuff they used to put on the bonfire and it was built up over sort of a couple of weeks, very big bonfire and so it was a great big event.  I can remember going down to the end of New Road and running back home and saying ‘it’s alight’ and then we’d all go out there.