Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, &c./Part 2/Rushbearing in East Lancashire

RUSH-BEARING IN EAST LANCASHIRE.

These used to have a real significance. The rushes were cut, dried, and then carried in carts to the church-yard. The rushes were then strewn along the aisles of the church and in the bottoms of the pews in preparation for winter. Carpets and cushions (locally termed "wishons") were then unknown, except in the pews of the wealthy. Barrowford rush-bearing is always held on the first Sunday after the 19th August. This festival is still visited by vast numbers of persons from Burnley, Colne, Padiham, and elsewhere. Cheap trips are run on the East Lancashire line from Burnley and Colne to Nelson Station. Riot and drunkenness reign supreme. Rush-bearing Sundays are also observed at other places, as Holme, Worsthorn, Downham, &c., but usually not in so disreputable a manner. Most of the clergy take advantage of these Sundays, and fix their "charity sermons" for those days. They thus obtain contributions from many distant friends, who pay special visits to their relatives on these occasions. In Yorkshire these pastimes take the name of "feasts."

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