World’s fair – at Thrum Hall!

For an entire month in 1900 crowds came from far and near to Thrum Hall, home of Halifax Cricket and Football Club, as it was then called, for a great World’s Fair, Carnival and Universal Exhibition.

There cannot have been many Halifax people who did not join the throng for this amazing event as on the first Saturday alone there were 20,000 visitors.

The fair was held to raise funds for the club and two years had gone into the preparations. A total of £7,000 was spent, including £2,000 for a new covered stand, and the ground itself was transformed.

A lake stretched almost the length of the field and between this and the boundary wall stood an ambitious representation of old Pompeii for a nightly spectacle that was described as “a marvellous and majestic sight such as had never been attempted outside London”.

This was only one of many novel attractions to draw the crowds to the exhibition, which was important, not just for the club but for the town’s businesses. The cycle track round the cricket enclosure was occupied by local tradespeople’s stalls.

Two fountains played in the lake and there was a “cinematograph” show – a huge novelty then – which showed local views and people on the screen.

A balloonist made ascents throughout the exhibition and there were “educated” bears, snake charmers, acrobats, a rifle range and other sideshows.

In the centre of the main ground was a bandstand where military and local bands entertained the crowds. A 150-foot long dance floor had been laid down on the football field and firework displays followed the nightly shows given in a specially constructed theatre.

For refreshments there were tea rooms and buffets and visitors could rest in rustic summer houses.

The grand finale each day was the destruction of Pompeii, when the town, revealed by the tableaux beyond the lake, was destroyed by burning lava flowing from Mount Vesuvius in the background– a thrilling spectacle in which 350 people took part on a 350ft stage with a choir of 200 voices.