ONCE a trip to the circus was a real family treat. But attitudes have changed radically in recent years.

Nowadays animal rights activists stage demonstrations, and there’s genuine public concern over animal cruelty.

Television, computers and video games appeal more to today’s youngsters than clowns and trapeze artists and perhaps we all became just a bit too sophisticated for slapstick antics and candyfloss.

There was a time when most small boys dreamt of running away and joining the gaudy razzmatazz of the circus for a life of travelling the country in a convoy of caravans. But now much of this traditional lifestyle has gone.

In the Southampton of 40 or 50 years ago it was a very different story and the rumble of the circus train as it pulled into the old Terminus railway station was an event which always caused excitement.

The glitter and glitz, the exaggerated showmanship and swagger of the ringmaster in his top hat and tails and that unique, special atmosphere of the circus all went to make up the flamboyant, colourful scene that came with the live performances under the canvas roof.

“All the excitement and thrills of the big top are here,” trumpeted the Daily Echo in August, 1953, reviewing Billy Smart’s Circus.

“Packed houses, when the circus opened a week’s run on Southampton’s Royal Pier Recreation Ground, testify to the appeal it still exercises over young and old alike.

“Certainly this circus has plenty of thrills and plenty of laughs right from the moment the scarlet-coated bands-men strike up their opening bars until the last artist leaves the ring.”

These days many will look back on their Southampton childhood in the 60s and 70s and remember being taken to see the elephants walk, trunk to tail, through the streets from the dockland’s Terminus station to either Mayflower Park or on the longer trek to the Common where the circus had pitched its big top.

Shepherded by circus workers, in their bright coloured uniforms, the elephants trundled along at a surprisingly quick pace as hundreds of children, together with their mums and dads, tried to keep up with the bizarre parade.

In its heyday the show was on a grand scale and it was nothing for a troupe to travel around the country with 350 people and 250 animals.