Carnival Collection
The History
Bridgwater Carnival Collections benefit both the Carnival and local Charities, this income is vital to keep the Carnival alive. We have collectors with tins and collection carts in the procession for you to throw your money in.
Charities are selected each year to benefit from the collection, the main criteria being that any monies collected should be used to benefit local people and provide collectors for Carnival night. Charities who collect receive a share of the amount they collect, so the harder they work the more they benefit.
The collections prior to 1963 were carried out by the St Johns Ambulance. Since that date the Carnival Committee have taken responsibility themselves and the collection has gone from £245 in 1963 to a peak of £30,701 in 2006. Some noticeable changes being in 1985 when the £1 coin was introduced, unfortunately for us most people had worked out what they were by 1986. A wet night also has a marked influence on the collection, although this rarely happens you can see the impact in 1995 & 2005 for example and in 2000 when much of the country was flooded although it was dry for Bridgwater Carnival.
The committee has had several Collection Officers over the years, the longest reigning being Bill Holland who was in charge from 1963 until 1985, Dave Croker took over for the period 1986 until 1996, followed by Mike Searle for the period 1997 until 2001 and Wayne Anker for 2002. As you can see the time served is getting shorter as each new person takes over. However for 2003 we had a new, young dynamic Collection Officer, Mark Robson (pictured above) who had assured us he was going to take us to new heights in 2003, he did it and went on to do it again in 2004, however his rise to fame was brought to an abrupt halt in 2005 when he left organising the weather off his list of things to do. Unfortunately due to this oversight there were numerous heavy showers during the evening which had an impact on the collection, with £28,919 being collected, a reduction on 2004 but still a very good effort considering the weather.
Well 2006 brought a nice dry night, albeit a cold one and with an excellent crowd the collection rose to £30,701 the highest ever by a small margin. But again Mark has not achieved his target, however this has only made him more determined to do better in 2007, but as history tells us he failed again. In 2008 & 2009 further reductions, the recession starts to bite?
We remain positive and looking forward to 2010 with the hope that things will pick up! This of course means Mark needs all the help he can get; with the present downward trend doing nothing for his reputation every penny counts. His goal of £35,000 looks to be a dream (or in his case a nightmare). Watch this space!
None of us can succeed without the help of you the spectators who we rely on to dig deep into your pockets and give generously to thank the entrants who all give their time voluntarily to put the Carnival on for you. The number of coins collected in 2009 was 619,278, a lot of coins to sort and count but a worthwhile task.
The coins collected were made up as follows:
£2 - 726, £1 - 11,009, 50p - 7,821, 20p - 25,341, 10p - 27,029, 5p - 58,699, 2p - 205,415, 1p - 283,238.
If you feel you can help Mark with his task in any way, have any bright ideas how he can increase the collection or would like to make a contribution please contact him direct, he will be pleased to hear from you. Email:
| 1963 | £245 | 1964 | £286 | 1965 | £239 | 1966 | £450 |
| 1967 | £414 | 1968 | £500 | 1969 | £429 | 1970 | £566 |
| 1971 | £741 | 1972 | £884 | 1973 | £1,716 | 1974 | £2,094 |
| 1975 | £2,606 | 1976 | £2,651 | 1977 | £3,486 | 1978 | £4,835 |
| 1979 | £5,065 | 1980 | £4,727 | 1981 | £6,292 | 1982 | £7,718 |
| 1983 | £9,586 | 1984 | £9,826 | 1985 | £13,119 | 1986 | £12,783 |
| 1987 | £15,065 | 1988 | £17,417 | 1989 | £21,476 | 1990 | £23,507 |
| 1991 | £22,212 | 1992 | £22,316 | 1993 | £22,779 | 1994 | £23,894 |
| 1995 | £18,925 | 1996 | £23,617 | 1997 | £22,897 | 1998 | £24,670 |
| 1999 | £26,917 | 2000 | £19,312 | 2001 | £25,441 | 2002 | £23,438 |
| 2003 | £27,915 | 2004 | £30,541 | 2005 | £28,919 | 2006 | £30,701 |
| 2007 | £27,993 | 2008 | £26,941 | 2009 | £24,284 |
