I have seen a lantern procession before – a couple of hundred kids and their parents and grandparents climbing up Totnes High Street to the town square – but nothing on the scale of what l witnessed last night in Bath.
Must say l was a bit anxious for the safety of the hundreds expected to walk up Great Pulteney Street from their start point at the Holburne Museum.
There were no police on duty for the procession and no signs to re-direct traffic.
I was at the Laura Place end of Pulteney Bridge with a security man who was not quite sure in which direction he was meant to stop traffic and he had no walkie-talkie to find out either!
Buses, taxis and cars were still whizzing around as we could hear the sound of the samba band leading a procession of at least six to eight hundred people.
As it happened they had come up the street on the wide pavement and – having crossed Laura Place – past the defunct and sorry-looking fountain – climbed back onto the pavement to cross Pulteney Bridge and make their way towards Bath Abbey.
Well done to everyone involved – it was a grand affair.
Good to see all the generations mixed together and enjoying themselves with Bath’s first real nod towards the Christmas festivities that lie ahead.
Sorry l only caught the tail-end – but here’s a bit of the flavour of the people of this wonderful city enjoying themselves.
