Another Bagful of Midget Gems

Everybody likes midgets (apart from Jeanette Cranky, of course), so what better way to chase off those post-Christmas blues than with a few ‘historic’ postcards (courtesy of Phil Barker at http://www.rossallbeach.co.uk/) featuring a selection of diminutive entertainers? Unlike our previous article on this topic, this particular troop of 'wee folk' weren’t owned by John Lester at Blackpool Tower, but were known as Chaffer’s Wonderful Midgets, a rival gang of alternative tumblers and acrobats inhabiting the Winter Gardens. (Well, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, eh?)

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference between a dwarf and a midget is, apparently (and we’re not scientists here, so don’t blame us if we’re wrong), dwarfs tend to have bulbous heads, stumpy fingers and bandy legs, whereas midgets are perfectly proportioned, just on the extremely small side; although the bloke on the far left in the photograph above is trying his best to fall into both categories.
One of the advantages that midgets have over the rest of us, of course, is their ability to create instant joy amongst on-lookers when they put on a humorous costume, as the following photograph (possibly a dark premonition of the rise of Hitler) demonstrates:

We don’t have much information about Chaffer’s Wonderful Midgets. However, Phil did receive an e-mail from some bloke in Australia whose forefathers (and possible foremothers) were midgets from Garstang. This doesn’t surprise us. The parochial stubbornness of the Over Wyre district often results in...shall we say 'thoroughbreds'; sometimes, even, the occasional court case concerning a goat. (It's a joke! It's in quite poor taste perhaps, but so's the exploitation of midgets and I don't hear anyone complaining about that!)

Several generations down the line, the Australian’s descendants have re-maximised in height, proving, if nothing else, that the rumours about the great orange continent aren’t necessarily true. However, family legend has it the original midget great-grand parents (under the command of John Lester) actually lived in ‘Midget Town’ (now Jungle Jim’s) rather than just inhabiting the model village during visitor hours. We can’t verify this, but the images of after-hour drinking, fighting and poker playing, all taking place in those brightly painted toy-town buildings, jars a bit, doesn’t it?
Still, we don’t want to end on a downer, so how about one last photograph before Wyre Archaeology (not to mention any other serious organisations linked to this site) disown us for ripping up the politically correct handbook, and we get mobbed in our sleep (and quite rightly too) by the Disabled Council of Great Britain?