ABSTRACT
Earlier circuses had been much like drama, but now the old permanent buildings, with their proscenium stages at the edge of the ring, began to disappear, replaced by the canvas ‘big top’. Tenting also meant circuses could travel more easily, and smaller circuses might move from one village to the next almost daily. They would be away early in the morning, set up their big top in the next village by lunchtime, parade round the vicinity in the early afternoon, drumming up an audience and perform in the evening. The expansion of the circus can be gauged from the fact that The Era estimated that there were sixty-six acrobat troupes active in 1867, and ten years later, ninety. The years after the Second World War saw another boom in circus popularity, but by the end of the 1950s, it had dissipated.
