Carnival trophies discovered after years in lockup

A carnival committee is trying to "fill in the blanks" of an event's 95-year history after discovering a number of awards from years gone by.

Nine trophies and shields from Nuneaton Carnival have been found in a lock-up in Camp Hill following a new committee taking over the event.

The awards date back to the 1950s and would have been presented to the winners of several of the carnival's categories, including best float and best dressed.

David Hawley, the committee's treasurer, said the event had taken place since 1930, and he hoped by "publicising the event's past", it would "help to secure its future".

The carnival previously announced it would not return in 2025 due to a lack of volunteers, however, after a new team assembled, the event is scheduled to take place in the market town in Warwickshire on 24 August.

Andy Sergeant, the carnival's chair, said one of the artefacts was so big it was "like the World Cup".

He added that the committee wanted to get the trophies cleaned up and find the people whose names had been engraved.

We want to trace the families of the event's carnival queens from the past in order to "fill in the blanks" of its history, Mr Sergeant said.

"We'd like them to give us some idea of what it meant to them, the first carnival queen would have lived through the war, so it's a massive history project."

The committee's chair added that it had reached out to the town's museum and hoped the trophies would be displayed in an exhibition.

"Hopefully publicising the trophies will remind the past winners of how much fun they had in the carnival and they will be there to join us in August," Mr Hawley said.

"We don't want it [the carnival] to die out."

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