Rossendale Free Press

Dance teams step out for Rushcart

- CHARLOTTE GREEN charlotte.green@trinitymir­ror.com @CharGreenM­EN

WET weather failed to dampen spirits at this year’s Whitworth Rushcart which has been hailed as a success by organisers.

The annual celebratio­ns on Sunday, September 3, included a procession down Market Street and then rides, performanc­es and an arts and crafts fair at the Riverside Civic Hall.

The procession left from Whitworth Museum and featured numerous traditiona­l Morris dance troupes, including the Britannia Coconutter­s and the Whitworth Morris Men, led by the Rushcart itself.

This year, the dancers were joined by a new group, the Hebden Bridge Hill Millies, a women’s Morris dancing group based in Hebden Bridge, dancing in the Cotswold tradition accompanie­d by a fiddler.

Additional­ly, for 2017 the Whitworth Morris Dancers had recruited two new dancers and organisers from the town’s tourism and leisure committee were joined by volunteer marshals.

The procession also featured the Whitworth Vale and Healey Youth Band, Haslingden-based belly dance troupe Az Kabile, the Whitworth Broom Girls, and Samba Dance.

Melanie Hearn, Town Clerk at Whitworth Town Council, said it was a big success. She added: “Despite being the wettest Rushcart in memory this did not dampen the Whitworth spirit and dancers and locals alike braved the weather to join the celebratio­n.

“Organisers wish to thank all our dancers and volunteers who made this event the success it was.”

Whitworth’s Rushcart history goes back hundreds of years and the celebratio­n was initially linked into the cutting and collection of rushes to be strewn on the floor of the church as a form of insulation for the winter to come, taken to the church on the cart.

 ??  ?? Performers at Whitworth Rushcart including, top, the Hebden Bridge Hill Millies
Performers at Whitworth Rushcart including, top, the Hebden Bridge Hill Millies

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