Old Buildings Round Rochdale: Belfield & Newbold Halls. Belfield Hall is one of my favourites - such a shame it was demolished. The hall was last tenanted in August 1891.

After yesterday's 'pub quiz friday' I thought it might be nice to have a look at the history of the 'Sandknockers' and also share some photos of old Smallbridge :-) The Sandknockers (Taken from an article by John Cole and information from the excellent book ‘Smallbridge – a lost village’ by Allen Holt) The first photograph is from around 1900, and shows how much Halifax Road has changed. At that time, the area was well sprinkled with pubs, beerhouses and brewers. As well as the Red Lion on the corner of Wardle Road, (landlord Fred Greenwood) there was the Cab Inn, Dye House Lane; John Chadwick, brewer, beerseller & cab proprietor at the Grey Mare Inn; the Welcome Inn; Steps; the Waggon and Horses; the Greengate Inn; the Store Tavern; the Wardle & Dearnley breweries and numerous semi legitimate ale houses. In 1973 the Red Lion was renamed The Sandknockers in order to commemorate the old local trade of sandknocking, it was also extended into what had been a Pioneers store and Hallet’s shoe and bicycle shop. During the early 1800s the sandknockers collected millstone grit quarry waste free of charge from the thriving stone quarries on Blackstone Edge. They transported it to Smallbridge by horse and cart and the stone clippings were crushed or ‘knocked’ into grains of sharp sand. This sand was used on the flagged floors of houses, as the occupants moved across the floors in their clogs, the iron on the clogs and the sand created a scouring action which kept the floors clean. Sandknocking was described by Edwin Waugh in his Lancashire Sketches (1881): ‘There is a race of hereditary sand-sellers or sandknockers in Smallbridge – a rough mountain breed who live by crushing sandstone or rock for sale.’ ‘The people who knock this sand and sell it have been known over the countryside for many years as ‘Th’ Kitters’.’ Originally people involved in the trade were called ‘sandkitters’, after the Kitter family who, in their day were famous sandknockers. Kitter Square and Kitter Street were named after them. The process of Kittering was also carried out in a two storeyed building in Sand Street (built by the Harris family) and in an 18th century barn in Windham Street. Kitter Square and Sand Street have been lost in the redevelopment of the Village over the years, however Windham Street and Kitter Street still remain. The Sandknockers Pub was renamed the Spring Mill Tavern before closing and being converted into flats.

Pub Quiz Friday! Usual Rules: Guess the pub below and where it is! For obvious reasons I've blanked the sign out (don't want to make it too easy!) As soon as someone gets it I’ll post the proper photograph. Photographs are from Dave Messengers 'Pubs of Rochdale' Collection.

A Rochdale Rodeo in August 1924!

Old Buildings Round Rochdale: Wicken Hall, Ogden

Love this one! The opening of Denehurst Park in July 1932. Look at all hats! :-)

Pub Quiz Friday! Usual Rules: Guess the pub below and where it is! For obvious reasons I've blanked the sign out (don't want to make it too easy!) As soon as someone gets it I’ll post the proper photograph. Photographs are from Dave Messengers 'Pubs of Rochdale' Collection.

Local Studies on tour! All set up at Spotland Library for That's Entertainment!

Coming up this week at Spotland Library!

Old Buildings Round Rochdale: Brotherod Hall

A spooky Saturday in July 1880! A ghost in St. Chad's Churchyard: '...seemed to be the skeleton of a human being, hideously repulsive in its figure, of a bright sulphurous colour and with fiery glaring eyes' Now what would you think that was?! Ghost? Demon? Nope, a tree stump with phosphorous soil on it! Good tale though! :-)

It's Littleborough Rushbearing weekend, a nice excuse to share some cracking photos! :-) Find out more about the event here: http://rushbearing.uk/ Rushbearing began as a religious ceremony that evolved over the centuries into a popular holiday, with all its associated revelry and ribaldry. Here we provide an overview of the tradition and some highlights from the early 20th Century. In the past, rushes were strewn onto the bare, unflagged floors of churches to provide warmth and insulation throughout the winter months. Over centuries, the annual gathering of new rushes to replace the old, was absorbed into the church calendar, and took on the form of religious ceremony. In Rochdale, and other north-western towns, the traditions were later to involve the rushcart processions. Later, during the latter years of the nineteenth century, the ceremony and its attendant revelries were judged by the rising tide of middle class moralists to have degenerated into ribald debauchery. Eventually they succeeded in banning the traditional parades - although there was a revival for the Rochdale Jubilee in 1906, and for George V's coronation in 1911. The common rush, Juncus communis, was used for strewing in churches. Originally the rushes were cut and gathered by women, who then carried armfuls of them to the church. In 1618, King James I laid down the rules for what harmless games might be enjoyed on Sundays by his subjects in "The Book of Sports." Included among these sports were 'May games, Whitsun ales, Morris dances and the setting up of Maypoles and other sports, ..... so that the game may be had in due and convenient time without impediment or neglect of divine service, and that the women shall have leave to carry rushes to church for the decorating of it.' In other words, people could take part in these activities, provided they did not interfere with attendance at church. Early Rushbearing seems to have had much in common with the 'Bringing-in-the-May ceremonies, even though the rushes were gathered in late summer or early autumn. Folklorists believe that the green boughs that were carried on top of many of the carts were symbolically similar to the boughs gathered in the old May Day celebrations. In those older traditions, men and women went to the woods to collect leafy boughs. In 1595, Stubbes wrote "....of forty, threescore or a hundred maids going to the woods, there have scarcely a third part of them returned home again as they went." A veiled hint that the fertility rites did not begin and end with the collection of leafy boughs! In 1626 a similar comment was made about the Ringley Rushbearing: " All the recompense I can make those maydes that brought rushes, is to wish them good husbands." No doubt the same could have been said of the 'maydes' of Lowerplace, Milnrow, Middleton and elsewhere at that time. In the industrial towns of north-west England, the tradition was to develop differently, as simply carrying the rushes to churches like St Chad's, Rochdale's Parish Church, was transformed into the rushcart tradition. By the 1800's rushcarts had supplanted the women's role. Men generally built up the rushcarts, and men usually pulled the carts - with one or two exceptions. It is possible that the complete takeover by men of the collection of rushes put an end to the Mayday style frolics. In Rochdale, Rushbearing Sunday was the third Sunday in August, followed by the Festival on the following Monday. On the Sunday preceding Rushbearing, the church officials would call on their parishioners to assist in the gathering of rushes for the church. Marland Mere, in the area where Springfield Park is today, was the usual location chosen, in the days before carts were used, Once picked, the rushes were transported by the armful to the Parish Church. On Rushbearing Sunday the Church was also adorned with wreaths and garlands of flowers, (yet another connection with Mayday traditions) and on the following morning these were paraded through the streets. As time went by, 'Rushbearing Monday', became established as a local holiday. Once the church floors had been flagged, it was no longer necessary to gather rushes for warmth. However, local people obviously enjoyed the traditions that had sprung up around the festival - the parade of rushcarts, the fairs and side shows and the general air of revelry and holiday. Fun, fairs, drinking and fighting between the rival rushcart supporters were all part of the festivities. In August 1827, the editor of the Rochdale Recorder wrote that "he had never seen so vast a population - 20,000 strangers are crammed into the town - with so many persons under the influence of liquor who exhibited such good feeling and urbane kindness." James Kay-Shuttleworth describing another rushbearing in the 1820's wrote: "The rushcarts assembled in the street opposite the Butts, each with its band in front.......in side streets were stalls with Eccles cakes, Everton toffee and Ormskirk gingerbread. Conjurers stood on stages, mountebanks and clowns were ready to perform and there was a bear in the Butts, growling defiantly at the dogs by which it was to be baited." The last rushcart to be built in Middleton was photographed in Chadderton in 1883. Like most rushcarts, teams of men drew it, and there would usually be a man sitting astride the top of the pyramid of rushes, surrounded by tree branches or bowers of flowers. The can that is dangling down the side of the stacked rushes was intended for the liquid refreshment of the rider. He would lower it down whenever the rushcart and its hauliers paused at a public house. Sam Bamford, the Middleton Radical and writer wrote about the Middleton Rushbearing in his autobiograpy "Early Days" in 1848. An extract from the 2nd edition (1859) is included below. Other groups began to join in with the processions, for example, a cart carrying several huge 'cobs of coal' weighing a total of 16tons 5 cwt is said to have been in the Middleton parades in 1859 (see: Helm, A. Rushcarts of the North-west of England. Folklife, Vol.8 1970). In addition Helm tells us that during the late 1880's a well-known local morris dancer known as 'Owd Stiff' used to ride on a cart with a partner, weaving on a pair of looms. Their aim in joining the procession was the collection of money for themselves. The Jubilee was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rochdale's Incorporation as a Borough in 1856. It was revived the rushcart tradition in the town. In the photograph which shows a rushcart being built for the procession you can see bundles of rushes being tied, in preparation for stacking on the cart. The large carts used were hay carts or those used for transporting manufactured goods. Building a rushcart was a skill not unlike thatching. Bundles of rushes were held in place on the cart by their own weight, so only a stack that was wider at the bottom and tapering to the top, would survive the hazards of being dragged along streets paved with stone setts. Pack sheets were banners carried in front of the rushcart by two or more men. It was raised up on a pole, so that it was easily seen. The pack sheet illustrated was made by the 'dye room and bleach house boys' employed by John Bright and Brothers. Fastened to it are samples of " bundle and dye warped cotton yarns, mercerised yarns, artificial silk, worsted, linen and jute yarns." These samples were coloured with "every variety of dyestuff" then in use, and must have resulted in an eye-catching display. Henry Brierley, writing in 1923, gives the following account of Rushbearing in Rochdale in his childhood. "One rushcart was always built in the 'Pound' adjoining the Castle Inn at Pinfold, and a very clever construction a rushcart was - a tapering solid pyramid of rushes with the ends all shaved smooth. The front of it was adorned with flowers, and often with silver plate, lent by the old Rochdale families. It was drawn by young men by means of stretchers, which were poles, attached at each end to two parallel ropes, fastened to the shafts of the cart. Thirty or forty young men could make the cart go, and as they pranced from side to side of the road with the stretchers high above their heads, the twenty pairs of them cleared the roadway of all spectators." The image of the Jubilee Rushcart on Heights Lane in 1906 shows clearly what Henry Brierley meant. You can see the poles raised above the heads of the men pulling the cart. As Brierley said, the cart was drawn by teams of men, who yoked themselves to it by means of poles that were around 10 feet long. These were sometimes known as 'stangs.' There was generally a space of about 5 feet between each pair of men. As they pulled the cart along, the men raised the poles above their heads, moving from side to side of the road, in time to the music. The tallest men (and the best fighters) were at the front of the teams, with the shorter men bringing up the rear. Apparently, very short men were lifted off their feet when the poles were raised up. The fighters in the vanguard were there to sort out any opposition from rival carts and teams. On the photograph showing 'Little Joss' seated on top of the Jubilee Rushcart you can see his tankard, ready to be let down for his share of the refreshments. No 'silver plate' is evident on this image, as mentioned by both Henry Brierley and Margaret Lahee (one of Rochdale's dialect writers), when writing of the Pinfold and Marland Rushcarts. In 1878, Margaret Lahee gave the following description of the Marland Rushcart in the 1820's. "The cart was a large one, painted blue, upon which was smoothly packed, in regular form, a pyramid of green rushes, standing at least four yards high, the front decorated with silver plate, borrowed for the occasion, consisting of tankards, teapots, coffee pots, salvers, toastracks etc. These glittering articles were interspersed with fruits, vines and flowers, the back being ornamented by initials in flowers of its village or hamlet. Crowning the whole was a tree in full foliage, trimmed with ribbons etc." Alex Helm suggests that the use of silver tankards and other shiny objects on the front of the rushcart may have stemmed from the old belief that bright objects reflected evil away. This was in much the same way that mirrors, items of jewelry and watches on the clothing of certain ritual characters such as the 'fool' (also mentioned by Brierley) or the 'female,' did, in the far older rituals that this reflected. In Rochdale, the 'female' had links with the Easter Pace Egg Play. Helm notes that she was supposedly '...a dirty slut... dressed in the dirtiest petticoats that could be found.' Known as Dirty Bet or Dirty Molly, this character swept the street clear for the dancers. In the Pace Egg, 'Little Devil Doubt' does the sweeping, but Dirty Bet also plays her part. The 'fool' was apparently a hideous figure, who wore a 'repulsive mask' and had a pigtail made out of a cow's tail and onions for earrings. In large towns like Rochdale, several rushcarts would parade through the town. Some would be from Rochdale itself, from districts like Smallbridge, Lowerplace, Pinfold and Marland. Others would come in from surrounding districts. In 1825 six or seven rushcarts were reportedly in Rochdale, ".....supported as usual by the patronage of the local gentry." The monetary contributions of the gentry enabled the rushcart teams to "...sacrifice freely at the shrine of Sir John Barleycorn." In other words they had plenty of funds for beer. As time went on, however, these drinking sprees were increasingly frowned upon by the growing bands of moral reformers. Many of the moralists in the town were also the factory owners, who employed increasing numbers of local people. These pillars of the new establishment were the newly emerging middle classes, and were often non-conformists and liberal in their politics. However, their liberalism did not extend to approval of their workers taste for fun and fights. They equated the old traditions with debauchery, extremism and the possibility of revolt and riots directed at themselves. Not to mention lost working hours. In short, they thought the rushcart was a threat to stability, rather than an opportunity for the participants to have fun and generally 'let off steam'. They may have had some grounds for concern, though, as the 'featherer' for the Marland Rushcart was one of three people killed during Rochdale's food riots of 1795. All the young men who drew the Marland Rushcart wore black armbands in his memory for a number of years. For a long time, the gentry and the church lent staunch support to the old traditions, in the face of growing criticism. By the 1840's condemnation of the rushbearing was increasing. The Rochdale Pilot laid the blame "...for the continuance of the custom entirely with the wealthy." Dr. Molesworth, the Vicar of Rochdale, who still offered a cash incentive for the first cart to arrive at St Chad's, was blamed, as was James Dearden, the Lord of the Manor. Dr Molesworth, Vicar of Rochdale for 38 years, was a supporter of the 'rational pleasures' of the people provided by the local rushbearing traditions, though even he was sometimes shocked. He died on 21st April, 1877, aged 87. In 1859, however, the Smallbridge Rushcart shocked even the Vicar. As the Rochdale Observer put it, in a piece of calm and uncritical reporting: the Smallbridge cart was "...partly manned by women and girls - 42 females helping to drag the cart." Letters to the newspaper following the event bordered on the hysterical. John Ashworth, who founded the Chapel for the Destitute, wrote: " Those persons labouring for the redemption of mankind must be sick at heart. Never could they have conceived that young girls would be seen drawing rushcarts." The Vicar was publicly criticised for his continued support of the event. The Vicar was indeed shocked. But he still advised that sympathy for the 'rational pleasures' of the people 'should be shown by those who urge them to relinquish old and popular habits.' Similar sentiments resulted in the Heywood Advertiser for1858 repeating the following comments from 1847: "We are ready to weep for very shame, to see our fellow men make such spectacles of themselves for the delights to be found in muddy beer - to behold them so lost to manly independence and self respect that for a few dirty coppers they outrage common sense, and make themselves the laughing stock of a noisy rabble." They went on to observe: "May we be spared to see the custom laid aside, and hereafter referred to as in bear-baiting, sports delighted in by a peasantry whose ignorance has been dissipated, and whose tastes have been elevated by the civilizing influence of an education movement, whose step is firm, rapid, onward." By the mid 1860's there were few carts to be seen during the August holiday, and those which were on the streets were treated scornfully by the press. In Lowerplace, however, the 'Rushcart Lads' continued to build their rushcarts until the 1870's. The day of the rushcart was almost over - more due to the development of seaside holidays for the masses, than the ban imposed by Magistrates in the 1880's. Almost before they had disappeared, the rushcarts became symbols of a lost 'golden age' as described by writers like Margaret Lahee. In consequence, rushcarts were built with official blessings for occasions such as the Rochdale Infirmary Gala in 1894, the Rochdale Jubilee in 1906 and the Coronation in 1911. Latterly, there was a revival in Rochdale in the 1980's and Littleborough continues to hold the festival today. The photographs used to accompany this text are almost all from 1906 or 1911, as we do not have any from earlier periods.