As Britain started to recover from the austerity of the Second World War, a national festival took place to boost morale and showcase Britain’s achievements. In Bideford, the Bideford District Trades Exhibition ran from 11-16 June 1951. Housed in one of the largest marquees ever seen in Bideford, the festival got off to a successful start at the Sports Ground. This was the first full-scale Festival of Britain event in North Devon, and it set a high bar for other festivals to follow. Months of hard work on the part of members of the Chamber of Trade, who organised the exhibition, bore fruit in the shape of attractive displays, and there was every indication that it would be as successful as its predecessors of 1937 and 1932.

Mr Bernard C Westall, CBE, chairman of the printing company Thomas De La Rue, opened the Festival. Mr Westall had visited Bideford on many occasions to stay with his aunts – Mrs Leman, who lived at Raleigh, and Mrs Wilson Hoard, who lived first at Commons, Northam, and later at Woodbines. The organiser of the Festival was the President of the Bideford and District Chamber of Trade, Mr Norman H Chope, from a family which for many years had been closely identified with business and public life in the town.   

Some 100 stands were housed in the outsize marquee with special events each afternoon and a programme of entertainment in the evening. Even in those days, the weather was not too helpful, what with a downpour of rain marring the opening ceremony and the heat of Tuesday afternoon when the ‘Any Questions’ audience sweltered in the entertainments tent! Everything in the exhibition was for sale and it was hoped that, as a bonus, good contacts might be made for future export trade. Mannequin (fashion) parades, arranged by Messrs Chopes, Heywood and Cock, Steward and Co. and Trapnells Ltd proved a great attraction.

Students of Bideford School of Art had worked on a thirty-foot long mural displayed at the Trades Exhibition. The mural represented, in a whimsical manner, the Festivals of 1851 and 1951 and the tales of Bideford. With the cooperation of the Bideford head postmaster, Mr S A Talboys, there was a stamp counter at the exhibition and a post box which was cleared twice daily. 

During the week total attendance at the exhibition was 11,912. ‘The exhibitors are very well pleased with the business they have done’, Mr Chope commented.