ROLL UP!

NEWQUAY | 1930s - 1960s

Elephants and camels on Cliff Road, Newquay

Cliff Road, Newquay | Courtesy of Cornwall Museum & Art Gallery

When the circus came to Newquay, the whole show arrived by train - elephants and all!

Newquay station saw some very special visitors a number of times between the 1930s and 1960s when the circus came to town.

Until the mid 1950s, the entire circus would come by rail. Four long special trains were run, carrying everything from the big top to the animals.

Circus advert, reading: Chipperfields Circus - This Sunday, 3pm, Newquay. See the 12 elephants leave Newquay station and walk to the circus site. Menagerie open Sunday from 3pm. Over 200 animals. Admission 1/-

Back then and indeed for a bit longer still, a big part of circuses was the travelling zoo or menagerie – a huge number of different animals, right up to elephants – which would go on display as an attraction in addition to the circus itself.

These trains would travel by night when the railways were much quieter. Schedules of other trains, notably freight ones, were adjusted so the circus trains were not held up on their journey.

A big feature was made of the procession of the elephants through the town to the circus site.

As the Cornish Guardian reported in its 5 August 1954 issue:

“If you want to see Bertram Mills Circus arrive you will get little sleep on Saturday night for it runs into Newquay station in four special trains, arriving in the early hours. The last to arrive is the animal train, due in at 9AM.

“If you want to see the elephants, they will be leaving Newquay Station at 2.15 on Sunday afternoon to walk to the showground by way of Cliff Road, Narrowcliff and Henver Road. They carry their own safety instructions on their flanks.”

Incidentally, all the circus elephants were young as fully grown ones wouldn’t have fitted into the train wagons!

From the mid 1950s to the early 1970s, roads were improving as were lorries so just the elephants travelled by train.

The elephants walking from the station to the showground continued to be quite an occasion and advertised to the public, as seen in the Chipperfields Circus advert higher up this page from the Cornish Guardian on 22 June 1961.

A similar advert appeared for Sir Robert Fossett’s Circus in the Cornish Guardian ten years later on 12 August 1971 which, from our research, appears to be the last time it happened.

Nick Pigott wrote about Circus Trains for the Railway Magazine in their August 2018 issue - read it here.