I AGREE with The Knutsfordian, February 26, that the way of selecting the May Queen is out-dated.
However he is wrong in supposing that this method has been in place for 150 years.
The following is a paragraph from the Guardian, May 1, 1914, which explains how the first May Queen was chosen.
“Selection of the May Queen: In the early days the May Queen was selected by the senior boys of the old Parochial School. And it was always a high day and holiday.
“The boys were marched to the Tatton-street schools, and Miss Graham, the kindly headmistress, felt proud of her girls as she paraded them before the committee of selection. In those days the passport to Knutsford’s royal throne was good looks. And there must have been many good-looking damsels in Miss Graham’s school, for the selection always took a full afternoon.
“When this not unpleasant duty was imposed on the boys for the first time in 1864 there were a good many eligible’s, but eventually all were excluded save Miss Darwell and Miss Annie Sarah Pollitt, and eventually Miss Pollitt was chosen, and on May 1 that year she was crowned, amid great rejoicing, Queen of the first May Festival of Knutsford.”
I am not sure for how many years this continued before the May Queen was selected by a committee of adults.
Mary Gracie Knutsford
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