Town prepares for historic event
PREPARATIONS are underway for one of Whitworth’s biggest events of the year.
The town’s rushcart procession takes place on Sunday, September 2, setting off from Whitworth Museum on North Street at 1pm.
Several morris dance troupes, including the renowned Britannia Coconutters and the Whitworth Morris Men are taking part.
They will travel up the main road, led by the Rushcart, arriving at the Riverside at approximately 1.20pm.
From 1.15pm until 4.30pm, the car park of The Riverside will be cordoned off for stalls, entertainment, morris dancing and a concert by the Whitworth Vale and Healey Youth Band.
St Bartholomew’s Church will be serving hot food, and the Riverside bar will be open, serving a real ale named Grogan’s Deligh’ in memory of the late Jimmy Grogan, Honorary Townsman of Whitworth.
There will also be an arts and craft fair, featuring a variety of artisan stalls in the Riverside main hall, rides and face-painting.
The event is being organised by the Tourism and Leisure Committee of Whitworth Town Council and the Events Safety Group.
Funding has been provided by Whitworth Town Council, Rossendale Borough Council and the Crook Hill Community Benefit Fund.
The Whitworth Rushcart is one of only four such celebrations which still take place in the UK, the others being in Sowerby Bridge, Littleborough and Saddleworth. Whitworth’s cart is unique in that it is the only one in the UK to be covered in local heather that is in bloom at this time of year, collected by the Whitworth Rushcart Men from the moors above Darwen before the event. Other rushcarts are covered with rushes or tatters of cloth.
Whitworth’s Rushcart history goes back hundreds of years; initially the celebration was linked into the cutting and collection of rushes to be strewn on the bare earth or stone flagged floor of the church as a form of insulation for the winter to come, taken to the church on the cart.
Out of this grew a celebration which was enjoyed by the whole community. In the 1970s and 1980s the Rushcart was the highlight of the Whitworth Fair week; in recent times the week-long festivities have passed into history however the popularity of the Rushcart itself in Whitworth is strong.
The Rushcart now takes place on a Sunday afternoon each September rather than its traditional Friday night slot, and has become more familyfocused, attracting 1,500 visitors annually.
For further information contact Whitworth town clerk Melanie Hearn on 852018 or info@ whitworth.gov.uk, Monday to Friday, 9am – 2.30pm.