Chris Brown - Town Crier

Chris Brown is the town crier for Wimborne and has been for many years now. Chris was judged champion in the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers competition in Trowbridge 2007. The competition is second only to the national championship held every year in which he has come fifth in the past. Chris was delighted to win the major competition and in doing so spread the word that Wimborne is a delightful town to live in and visit. Along with this award he received his first win for best dressed town crier. The costume was made by our course technician Katerina who made the costume approximately 5 years ago and so I will discuss with Katerina about how she went about creating a winning costume in hope that the costume I produce could also receive a winning place for Chris in the near future.

Chris is pictured with his award and winning costume centre right in the photo below.

Chris's current costume reflects the Dorset colours, red, white and gold which is a design feature he likes to maintain for all of his costumes. Katerina managed to achieve this really successfully on his current costume and I'd really like to achieve the same authentic image.

I will arrange to meet with Chris now to discuss the sort of look he would like for his next costume and also see if he has had any problems with costumes in the past so I know what to avoid.

Below are a few general research images of stereotypical town criers. The majority of styles are influenced by 17th and 18th century silhouettes. Most town criers like to reflect the colours of the town they are crying for which sometimes means a clash in fabrics which can often give a "cheesy" image. But then a stereotypical town crier is thought of as "cheesily" dressed which is why I'm not afraid to explore new fabrics that may be brightly coloured with a contrast of authentic decoration to create the historical look.