Watch: Float, float on – back to the 1938 Shrewsbury Carnival

Although nobody knew it then, the Shrewsbury Carnival of September 1938 was to be the last time the county town would be able to let its hair down for years.

The unseen backdrop to the fun and frivolity was an international crisis which threatened to set Europe aflame. In the event, war was averted – at a price, and only temporarily, as it turned out.

But today a modern generation of Salopians will throng the streets for the town's carnival. More than 75 years on, in a very different world, the key elements of the carnival mix would have been familiar to our 1930s forebears.

The action today was beginning in Shrewsbury's Quarry at 10am with entertainment, stalls and shows in what has been billed as Shrewsbury's biggest free one-day event.

At 2pm the parade with themed floats, walking groups, marching bands and dancers was taking to the streets of the town centre. Carnival theme in 2015 is "Carnival Goes on Holiday" and over 25 floats have been entered. Typically, the carnival attracts about 3,000 people each year.

Thanks to some extraordinary movie footage, we can make a comparison with the 1938 carnival. The film of that pre-war event has been showcased by The Media Archive for Central England, which is the screen archive for the Midlands in the UK. The film is viewable both on the MACE website and on YouTube.

There will be a dwindling number of Shrewsbury folk today who can have any memory of the 1938 carnival, but the historic town streets and, in some cases, the historic buildings, have endured and are reference points.

The film shows the colourful and imaginative floats, dancing troupes, a man on stilts, and a donkey pulling a barrel organ. One of the floats is for the Shropshire & Herefordshire Committee for National Fitness, who are on the back of a lorry – the wording on the lorry door shows that it was operated by C. Loosemore. Charles Loosemore was a haulage contractor from Spring Gardens.

The footage, which runs for just shy of three minutes, finishes with a military band marching up the street past the old Victorian market hall, which was destined to be demolished in the early 1960s.

Much of the early part of the footage has the offices of Hall, Wateridge & Owen prominently in the background. The camera must swing round, because we begin to get a view of some shops. There is Vickery & Co, Thomasson, and JS Chester. A little later we get a glimpse of Adams & Co.

These are names which will ring bells with some older Salopians and a dip into Kelly's Directory of 1941 helps pinpoint the location to Shrewsbury High Street.

For a detailed description of the carnival, we can look at the reports in the contemporary papers.

"Shrewsbury's Brilliant Carnival Finale" was the headline in the Shrewsbury Chronicle on Friday, September 16.

"A week of real enjoyment, with sporting and social attractions to brighten what would otherwise have been common-place days, reached its climax in Shrewsbury yesterday when the annual Shrewsbury Carnival – greatest demonstration of its kind in the county and for many miles beyond its borders – provided interest and amusement not only for the townspeople, but for thousands of visitors, including parties from practically every town and village in the county," its report said.

"From noon until midnight the streets of the town were crowded with revellers, while in the Quarry, where the most impressive spectacle of the day was staged, there was a riot of colour and comedy, yet including much that had both dignity and grace. The central figure of this moving panorama was of course 'Miss Shropshire' – the beautiful Miss Hilda Bunce, of Worthen – who a week ago, as 'Miss Worthen,' was selected out of 64 lovely candidates from towns and villages in Shropshire to assume the much-envied role of Queen of Carnival, with the distinction of being the most beautiful girl in the county."

The 2015 carnival queen, incidentally, is Zoe Forrester.

The 1938 carnival was held in sunshine, and was the eighth annual carnival organised by the Shrewsbury Hospitals Carnival Committee, founded in 1931 by the Shrewsbury Chamber of Commerce.

One of the new innovations for the 1938 event was a baby show, which proved hugely popular, with 249 entries. The list of judges shows that Dame Agnes Hunt was among them. We'll pick out one or two winners – in the boys' six to 12 months category it was Roy Parker of 3 The Circle, Bicton Heath, "a bonny blue-eyed baby, 12 months of age," and in the girls' up to six months, it was Heather Goodwin, of 58 Lincoln Hill, Ironbridge. If you two are out there, we'd love to hear from you!

Also new was a women's football match played on the West Mid showground between Dick Kerr's Ladies and the Parwich (West Derbyshire) Ladies, and a darts competition. Back then, the carnival started with a celebrity concert on the Sunday and there were various events over the week culminating in carnival day proper on Thursday, September 15.

One of the highlights on carnival day was a trial in Frankwell with the defendants accused of being found "stone cold sober" on licensed premises during opening hours. They were hauled up before Lord Chief Justice "Gudge" Steventon.

The processions – one in the afternoon, and a second in the evening when the parade was illuminated – had a record number of entries, up 15 on the previous year, and there were also a record 21 dancing troupes.

In all there were around 2,500 entries in the parade which was over a mile long, and passed through streets decorated with flags and streamers and lined by thousands of people standing five or six deep.

Mingling with the carnival crowds was the elusive "Mr Wiley Cop", a gentleman who, if discovered, handed over money to the lucky challenger. Among the attractions at the Quarry was Leon Volpre's miniature circus of trained ponies and dogs.

The next carnival had been set for September 14, 1939. By that time Britain had been plunged into war and the carnival was cancelled. Salopians would have to wait until September 11, 1952, before Shrewsbury carnival was revived, in a very different world.