A Long Expected Party

[davem]

This is taken from the recent book 'Black Diamonds', http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0...pf_rd_i=468294 about the Wentworth family, one of the richest families in Britain. This is a description of the 21st birthday party of the eighth earl:

The projected cost of the celebrations was £8,000 - more than £350,000 at todays values.

Shortly after lunch, on New Year's Eve in 1931, the day of Peter's birthday, the gates to Wentworth Park were opened.
The guests arrived early, in one-pony traps, farm carts & on foot. Some came on bicycles....Miners from the outlying pit villages had transport laid on for them...To discourage gatecrashers, the Estate officials had insisted that lapel badges be sent out with the 15,000 invitations. Moments after the Park gates were opened, so great was the crush that the Fitzwilliams' outdoor servants gave up trying to filter the crowds. The uninvited - miners & their families from all over the district - had come regardless, as (the Earl) knew they would....

The fireworks were spectacular. 'The setting occupied several hundred yards along which dim diminutive figures hurried with torches,' the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported.

At the opposite end of the line, mythical jugglers began throwing up balls of fire to left & right in pastel shades of green, pink & pale blue, & then followed a fireworks boxing match that created unbounded amusement, rousing the hearty cheers of the crowds. Wonderfully realistic were the firework dovecotes, to & from which fiery pigeons winged their way across the park. The finest art of the pyrotechnician was surely embodied in a remarkably life-like picture in fireworks of the personality of the day, Lord Milton. ....The most wonderful spectacle of all was the concluding number, an air and sea battle in which the attacking airship was brought down in flames....

"ay, that party were a treat,' Ralph remembered. 'Everyone had a good time. Too good. At the end of the night, there were that many drunks, all laid out in the Park asleep. They were all over the grass. They fetched some horses & a flat cart & tipped them out on't road outside the gates....

Every employee enjoyed a day's paid holiday, plus a special birthday gift of a brand-new ten shilling note...

(The eighth earl died in 1948 in a plane crash, along with Katherine 'Kick' Cavendish nee Kennedy, sister of Jack & Bobby)

Gatecrashers from all over the neighbourhood, drunks carried off on carts, a spectacular fireworks display & 'presents for all'

[Galadriel55]

Wow!!! I would never have thought something random can come this close to a situation from LOTR!

PS: did the birthday boy's uncle disappear, by any chance?

[Bêthberry]

Makes you wonder what kind of party JRR threw for his sons' coming of age parties. And Priscilla's too, although I'm not sure they were done quite the same way for daughters?

[Alcuin]

Tolkien was living at 20 Northmoor Road in North Oxford when this article was written. That’s about 140-150 miles due south of Sheffield, but only about 100 miles from Birmingham, where he grew up. They all appear to be on the same rail line, and such a party – and story – must have been reprinted in many papers of the day.

It certainly does sound very like Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday party! How did this come to your attention?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Alcuin

It certainly does sound very like Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday party! How did this come to your attention?

The book was a Christmas present. Its local history for me, as I've lived in the South Yorkshire coalfiield area all my life & I know all the places well. I'm sure it would have made the national press - plus Tolkien had connections with Leeds from his time at the University there, so he may have been told about it by friends - don't know if anyone he knew would have been there....

[skip spence]

Great find, davem!

The similarities do seem too close for it to be a coincidence.

[Rumil]

Lovely davem!

What I'm not clear about is : was the excerpt all taken from the Sheffield press report of '31 or was the text written by the modern author of the book?

If the second, it's still a wonderful tribute

[davem]

Originally Posted by Rumil

Lovely davem!

What I'm not clear about is : was the excerpt all taken from the Sheffield press report of '31 or was the text written by the modern author of the book?

If the second, it's still a wonderful tribute

Yep - missed the relevant quote 'marks' -


The fireworks were spectacular.

'The setting occupied several hundred yards along which dim diminutive figures hurried with torches,'

the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported.

At the opposite end of the line, mythical jugglers began throwing up balls of fire to left & right in pastel shades of green, pink & pale blue, & then followed a fireworks boxing match that created unbounded amusement, rousing the hearty cheers of the crowds. Wonderfully realistic were the firework dovecotes, to & from which fiery pigeons winged their way across the park. The finest art of the pyrotechnician was surely embodied in a remarkably life-like picture in fireworks of the personality of the day, Lord Milton. ....The most wonderful spectacle of all was the concluding number, an air and sea battle in which the attacking airship was brought down in flames....

So, yes, it was from the local press report - given that it happened at the height of the Great Depression such lavish spending would have probably been widely reported in the Nationals too - in fact the event was toned down as the seventh Earl originally wanted his son's 21st birthday celebrations to extend over a week. The Fitzwilliams were absolutely MEGA wealthy from their mining interests & mixed in the most elevated circles - which is partly how the Eighth Earl came to be having an affair with the future President Kennedy's sister Katherine (& thus how they came to die together in that plane crash - bit of a scandal at the time).

[Rumil]

Wonderful davem!