From 11-14 August 1924 52 pupils and
five teachers from Tickhill National School went on a
residential visit to London, as mentioned in Occasional
Paper 6. In all probability it was the youngsters’ first
visit to London. The reason for this special trip was to
see, in particular, the British Empire Exhibition at
Wembley, the largest exhibition arranged since the 1851
Great Exhibition. The exhibition ran from April to October
1924 and was repeated the following year. Apart from showing
the diverse resources and activities of the people of the
British Empire, it provided a means of recreation, rather
like an enormous theme park. For example, the Empire
Stadium, later to become the famous Wembley Football
Stadium, housed a range of pageants during July and August
1924 and there was a boating lake and amusement park as well
as the huge reinforced concrete-built pavilions with
exhibitions about this country, especially its industry,
engineering and arts, and about countries within the Empire.
(See the map of the exhibition below.) The following account
in the September 1924 issue of the Parish Magazine captures
all the excitement and ultimate exhaustion of the visit.
…A special saloon was attached to the train at Doncaster, and
after final farewells from anxious mothers who had followed as
far as they could, the 26 boys and 26 girls and the 5 in
charge were soon speeding south at 70 miles an hour. The
journey of three hours was spent chiefly in studying the
geography of East England and in eating lunch – but chiefly
eating lunch. At King’s Cross the parties gathered round
their leaders and threaded their way to the Underground
Station, where they were swallowed up in darkness and whirled
along beneath the roaring streets of the Metropolis to emerge
at length into daylight and Willesdon Junction. A tram-car
journey of ten minutes and a walk of five and Park Royal
Hostel – our home for three days – was reached. We found
spacious dormitories and a vast dining table seating 3,000.
Our party soon found a Tuck Shop! The boys and girls
entered
Initial
plans for this Exhibition began in 1913 and were then revived
after the War. The site chosen for the Exhibition was over 200
acres of Wembley Park. Trees were repositioned, a model coal
mine 35 feet deep was excavated and a lake at the northern
edge of the site was infilled. The foundations of the former
Wembley (Watkin’s) Tower, begun in 1880 as the first stage of
a structure to rival the Eiffel Tower but never completed, was
the site of the Stadium. This was the first building to be
completed and the Cup Final took place there in 1923. Over the
next year the many other buildings were completed, many
thousands of flowers planted and 15 miles of road laid.
Rudyard Kipling was given the honour of naming the roads. For
the first time, King George V’s voice was heard on the
‘wireless’ when he opened the Exhibition on 23 April 1924. By
the end of the Exhibition in 1925, it had attracted some 27
million visitors.
The
Exhibition was open from 10am to 11pm and admission cost 1/6,
with children charged half price at 9d. Additional charges
were made for access to the Stadium, according to the position
of seats, and entry to the Palace of Arts cost 6d with a
further 6d to see the Queen’s Dolls House. Some other charges
were made for sideshows in the Amusement Park, but the vast
majority of sights and entertainments incurred no additional
costs.
The visit
by the Tickhill pupils and teachers would have started in the
south-west corner where they saw the Sarawak, Malaya and
Australia exhibitions; over the next two days they saw a
considerable part of the site. Mention is made of watching a
re-enactment, in miniature, of the Battle of Zeebrugge. This
was one of the spectacles held in a theatre with a huge tank
on the stage in the British Government Pavilion. Little wonder
that the children needed the diversions of the Amusement Park
to recover from ‘severe mental indigestion’!
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