Knutsford set for Royal May Day Festival

9:55am Saturday 3rd May 2008

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KNUTSFORD'S Royal May Day procession will begin at 2pm today (Saturday).

The characters should gather in Marshall's Yard at 1.30pm.

“I’ve loved every minute of it."

Hilary Berkin, costume maker

Organisers have asked spectators not to throw coins into the procession for the children.

They want people to donate money by putting it in buckets carried by volunteers.

A Cranford-themed lorry will appear in Knutsford's Royal May Day Festival for the first time.

Four new characters have been added to the procession following the success of the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel.

They are Miss Matty Jenkyns, Miss Pole, The Honourable Mrs Jamieson and Mrs Forrester.

In the award-winning BBC drama the ladies were played by Dame Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Barbara Flynn and Julia McKenzie.

Hilary Berkin re-watched the television serial to help get ideas for creating the new costumes.

"I've loved every minute of it," she said.

But it was not easy to find material similar to the clothes worn in the 1840s.

Mrs Berkin had to travel to Burnley to find some of the print-covered fabric.

"It was desperation really," she said.

Mrs Berkin has previously created five May queens' dresses and many other characters' outfits.

She was responsible for costumes including Grace Darling, The Days of the Week, the Mad Hatter and Peter Pan.

"I see them all as they go past in the procession," she said.

The procession already includes a tribute to Mrs Gaskell's thinly-veiled novel about Knutsford with children dressed as Cranford ladies and gentlemen.

The new characters will join more than 500 youngsters in the procession.

Organisers have asked spectators not to throw coins into the procession for the children.

Meanwhile, potholes near the Halifax in Princess Street should once again be filled with earth to prevent children in the May Day procession tripping up.

Bob Ingham, one of the organisers, said the largest hole was a foot deep and six-feet wide.

"It's the biggest I've ever seen and the cobbles are visible below," he said.

"It takes a bashing every year and we can't have the band walking over that."

Mr Ingham, who has been complaining about the holes for 44 years, said he planned to ask a farmer to collect earth from Knutsford Football Club and fill the holes before Saturday's procession.