Garden Festival 1986

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
I read a very interesting article in last week’s Stafford Newsletter about the National Garden Festival that took place in Stoke in 1986.
It was a little bit of fabulousness that came to Stoke, and I’ve got such fond memories of that time.

I showed the article to my husband and I told him that I worked there for the whole of the 6 months that it was open.
But what I did seems unbelievable now, 35 years later.

I worked for Superkings cigarettes, had to wear a tight yellow costume and we had to walk round the festival offering people a cigarette. Then we gave them a voucher that they could redeem at the kiosk for a discount on a pack of 200.

D44A7DB0-A71F-4A39-822D-E55C1D0537FD.jpeg



Does anyone else remember the festival and have memories or photographs?
 

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
I was only 4, but the memories I have are the regeneration afterwards, we'd often get the train to Eutruria to go to Waterworld and Festival Park. Not sure how much after it that was built.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
I was only 4, but the memories I have are the regeneration afterwards, we'd often get the train to Eutruria to go to Waterworld and Festival Park. Not sure how much after it that was built.
I think it was a shame that after regenerating the area to something really special, gardens, cable cars, lovely things bringing people into the area, … why did it have to end after 6 months?

Then it just got turned into another retail park, a missed opportunity for the area.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I worked for Superkings cigarettes, had to wear a tight yellow costume and we had to walk round the festival offering people a cigarette. Then we gave them a voucher that they could redeem at the kiosk for a discount on a pack of 200.

View attachment 10773
I have to say that that looks absolutely fabulous.

I always liked the FIAT X1/9.


This bridge is still there.

Ireland March 2015 059.JPG
 

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
I was working for Pioneer Concrete at the time and many hundreds of cubic meters of conrete went up there during the 'deconstruction' process. One of the mixer truck drivers picked up a dozen or so cobbles each time he went there and managed to cobble his drive.
 

The Notorious A.N.T.

Well-Known Forumite
Handing out free fags! That is mind blowing, imagine that today?. My Grandad was in the RAF & used to talk about the daily cigarette ration he received when stationed in Germany after WWII. I asked him how many he got expecting the answer to around 5(ish). The 'ration' was actually 60 fags a day! As he said, in those days people literally smoked from the moment they got up to the moment they went to bed (he said they were 'proper' fags too, Capstan Full Strength - made JPS Black look like Silk Cut).
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Handing out free fags! That is mind blowing, imagine that today?. My Grandad was in the RAF & used to talk about the daily cigarette ration he received when stationed in Germany after WWII. I asked him how many he got expecting the answer to around 5(ish). The 'ration' was actually 60 fags a day! As he said, in those days people literally smoked from the moment they got up to the moment they went to bed (he said they were 'proper' fags too, Capstan Full Strength - made JPS Black look like Silk Cut).
Later on, when stationed overseas, service personnel got a ration of vouchers for fags at a special price - 1s or 5p for 20, I think, was the rate around 1970. There were sheets of the tiny coupons and you exchanged one coupon per subsidised pack.

The coupons were available to anybody, smoker or not, so non-smokers could avail of them as a form of sub-currency to be used for payments/inducements/bribes for exchange with smokers. At that time, a lot of the WRAFs would still be non-smokers, for example.

My father was a heavy smoker and, before we returned from Cyprus, he accumulated enough stock to actually fill a complete suitcase.

We returned to the UK in August and, by that November, he was a non-smoker - not even an ex-smoker, but a total, and zealous, convert to the non-smoking world.

A sort of self-inflicted aversion therapy.

I've often suggested to people who have struggled to give up or reduce their smoking that they should endeavour to gradually escalate their usage by adding an extra cigarette every day until they actually hate them properly. It certainly worked for him.
 

The Notorious A.N.T.

Well-Known Forumite
Later on, when stationed overseas, service personnel got a ration of vouchers for fags at a special price - 1s or 5p for 20, I think, was the rate around 1970. There were sheets of the tiny coupons and you exchanged one coupon per subsidised pack.

The coupons were available to anybody, smoker or not, so non-smokers could avail of them as a form of sub-currency to be used for payments/inducements/bribes for exchange with smokers. At that time, a lot of the WRAFs would still be non-smokers, for example.

My father was a heavy smoker and, before we returned from Cyprus, he accumulated enough stock to actually fill a complete suitcase.

We returned to the UK in August and, by that November, he was a non-smoker - not even an ex-smoker, but a total, and zealous, convert to the non-smoking world.

A sort of self-inflicted aversion therapy.

I've often suggested to people who have struggled to give up or reduce their smoking that they should endeavour to gradually escalate their usage by adding an extra cigarette every day until they actually hate them properly. It certainly worked for him.
Yes, my Grandad gave up completely too. He woke-up one morning coughing terribly & never lit a cigarette again. He said the cravings never left him though, especially after a meal. He just had the discipline not to start smoking again.
 

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
Yes, my Grandad gave up completely too. He woke-up one morning coughing terribly & never lit a cigarette again. He said the cravings never left him though, especially after a meal. He just had the discipline not to start smoking again.
My dad did similar, in short the Dr told him to stop or die. He threw his last half packet of Woodbines on the fire and that was that.
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
I read a very interesting article in last week’s Stafford Newsletter about the National Garden Festival that took place in Stoke in 1986.
It was a little bit of fabulousness that came to Stoke, and I’ve got such fond memories of that time.

I showed the article to my husband and I told him that I worked there for the whole of the 6 months that it was open.
But what I did seems unbelievable now, 35 years later.

I worked for Superkings cigarettes, had to wear a tight yellow costume and we had to walk round the festival offering people a cigarette. Then we gave them a voucher that they could redeem at the kiosk for a discount on a pack of 200.

View attachment 10773


Does anyone else remember the festival and have memories or photographs?
Yes, I remember the yellow costumes and cigarettes being given away but as a non-smoker I declined and wouldn't have remembered the brand.
I was there for at least a dozen days from the beginning of May through the summer manning the YHA stand which I remember was in Greenhouse 2000.
That's when the Rose and Crown was a proper pub nearby and Etruria had a railway station. All downhill for the Potteries since then I think.
 

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
Late to the thread but I remember being dragged down to Stoke from West Yorkshire by my parents who love their gardens. We even stopped in on a Factory shop to get some crockery on the way home. Fast forward 15 years and my girlfriend at the time (now wife) moved to an estate at the top of festival park when we relocated to Stoke from Exeter....
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Oooohhhh I remember that festival! :angry: I was 15 and dragged there on a 'fun day out' by my Dad, Stepmother & grandparents who were staying at my parents at the time.

There was a big hill with a slide, and I was mortified that both my stepmother & grandma decided to go down the slide.

Stepmother made it down, but my (large) grandma got wedged at the top and ended up with ripped knickers.

I was soooo annoyed and embarrassed ... in the way that only 15yr old teenagers are that I walked away in disgust.
 
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