Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 10:20 AM

That is good news henryp!

We have now emigrated to the Yorkshire Dales and have all sorts of walks on our doorstep but if the gardens are being restored it will be well worth making a trip back.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 08:40 AM

Egg rolling - with a modest fair - continues on Rivington Pike on Good Friday.

A mass trespass took place on Winter Hill in September 1896.

In 1913, Lord Leverhulme's original residence, Roynton Cottage, burned to the ground in an arson attack by the Suffragette Edith Rigby of Preston.

Rivington Heritage Trust

In early 2016, after a long wait, we received word that the Heritage Lottery Fund had approved our Stage 2 Grant application. We had been awarded monies to deliver a £3.4 million restoration project in the Gardens.

Capital works on site are likely to begin in Spring 2017. A guided walk and conservation task takes place each month as well as regular corporate volunteering days.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Sep 17 - 08:21 PM

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 27 Apr 10 - 11:11 AM

I clean forgot about this:

Bodleian Broadside: Rivington Pike

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 27 Apr 10 - 09:50 AM

When I was a lad in the 1950s Presall Hill [over the river Wyre from Fleetwood]was the place to go on Good Friday for egg rolling, they also did it on 'The Mount' in Fleetwood, but that was only for those to lazy to go across the river!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 27 Apr 10 - 05:39 AM

The event was captured on film by Mitchell and Kenyon c.1901 (at about 1:03 you can actually see an egg being rolled amid all the chaos!).

Blackpool Central Station had extra-long platforms, certainly in my lifetime, specifically to cope with the number and length of the 'Specials' that ran during the various wakes weeks. I suspect that many of the Mitchell and Kenyon seaside films were made during wakes weeks. It looks like my idea of hell.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 03:03 PM

Sminky, that's excellent news. I always knew you couldn't keep a good egg roller down.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 01:41 PM

That's good to hear. I was also wondering whether Lancashire towns or villages have wakes weeks and May Queen carnivals.

When Horwich closed for a wakes week in the '50s, virtually the whole town would go on holiday to Blackpool - you might even find yourself in a boarding house next to a boarding house where your next-door neighbours were staying!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 12:52 PM

The egg rolling in Avenham/Miller Parks in Preston is alive and well.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 11:56 AM

Hi Will,

Pace egg rolling used to take place in Preston over Easter, in a public park, I think. I used to belong to (pedantry alert) the Merseyside Folklore Research Association, and a group of members went up there to see it. This would have been at the back end of the 1960s.

I wasn't one of the ones who went, but I remember being told that they had a brass band there playing Lovely Joan. It took me a long time to realise that what they must have been playing was the Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves, which uses the tune of Lovely Joan as a kind of intermezzo.

When I get a minute I'll have a look through a few books on customs and see what I can find about egg rolling in Lancashire.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: GUEST,dave w
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 11:38 AM

No work has been done to the gardens as far as I can see! They are in a terrible state.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 02:45 PM

Cheers Dave - I'll certainly PM you if I can get there.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 02:41 PM

BTW - If anyone is up that area, Lead Mines Clough is always worth a visit as well. There are some spledid views of the res, a war memorial, plenty of industrial archaeolgy and an accesible iron age barrow - All in easy distance of the car park!

DeG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 02:35 PM

Funnily enough - I knew that, Sid. I think it is the only thing I know that was built as a ruin! It is 1/2 scale, I think, but my memory could be at fault there but I do know that Liverpool castle was chosen particularly because where the folly is on the res, the lie of land is very similar the promontoty that the original castle stood on.

I am definietely going to visit the gardens again to see what they have done. Hopefuly I won't slip and break my wrist this time! If you fancy it, Will, we can meet for a pint in the Barn. PM me if you do.

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 02:23 PM

I have always been quite partial to these. We have them all the time, and definitely, not only at Easter. Even Carol enjoys them, and she is one of those who always gets headaches after partaking of too many at once -- (the MSG don't you know!)

Even after coffee, they usually help us wake up and get "oriented" and be more able to face the day.

(pun intended ;-)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 02:18 PM

I remember the castle well - we knew it was a folly even in those days. Good to hear that the Gardens have been brought up to a decent standard.

I'm off to Lancashire in 3 weeks time for a little break - I shall pop in and enjoy the Gardens again. Thanks for the info, Sid - appreciated.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: GUEST,sid
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 02:15 PM

The land is all owned by the water company as it's the catchment area for Anglezarke Reservoirs. A lot of time and money has been spent restoring the Chinese Gardens recently and they now look better than they've ever done in my lifetime. The castle isn't a ruin, it's just as it was built - a copy of the ruins of Liverpool Castle!!!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 12:04 PM

Could have been a diease, Will, but I think the only thing left in any numbers for a long time have been rhodedendrons. It was more the paths and masonry that were in a worse state than I remember. Still pretty damned impressive though. I was re-watching the Lord of the Rings films last week and parts where people (and Hobbits!) were wandering though old ruins in various parts I was reminded of Rivington and the Ruined castle on the reservoir. I think my liking for fantasy works stems from exploration of many old ruins when I was a lad:-)

DeG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 11:53 AM

Lot of memories of Rivington Pike when I worked with children in Preston... used to take them up there to shout abuse at the people who had abused them... they would be given the direction of their homes and would shout abuse at their parents who had often sexually/physically abused them. It was very cathartic for them... often this was expressed on the ay back to the 'establishment' in which they lived..........
I also used to go buying at Antique Fairs there and occasionally had an antique stall myself...
Great memories.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 11:34 AM

DeG - didn't the Garden's plants suffer from some sort of disease a few years ago? That's probably one reason that they might look tatty - not that I've seen them myself, just heard so from acquaintances in the area.

I don't know whether the whole area is still part of the Leverhulme Estate, or whether it's administered by a local UDC.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 11:31 AM

You can practicaly drive to the top of the Pike - The road goes sraight up to near the Dovecote and, as far as I remeber, always has. I don't think getting a fair up was particularly difficult although, alas, I don't remember it either:-( From where I lived (Swinton and Pedllebury) you can see Winter Hill very clearly and, as soon as I was old enough to go out all day on my bike, about 1964 I would guess, both the TV mast and 'Rivi' Pike were a favourite destinataion.

Then when leg power gave way to petrol power, but still on two wheels, Sundays at the barn were almost compulsory! May take a trip up there again soon although last time I went the Chinese Gardens were in the worse state I have ever seen them. Hope something is being done to preserve Leverhulmes legacy.

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 09:46 AM

Come to think of it - after dredging my memory - it was probably on Good Friday, rather than Easter Monday, that we all went up to't Pike. And, dredging still further, it was Lord Leverhulme - not Lord Lever - who was the benefactor of the area around Horwich and Bolton.

The last time I was up on the Pike - a few years ago now - there were several school children with a couple of teachers on the top. The view was as wonderful as ever - the coast in the distance, miles of rolling fells, Anglezark and its reservoirs below. Beautiful blue sky with fluffy clouds just lazily trailing across.

The children were looking excitedly at - the new Nike Football stadium.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Weasel
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 09:04 AM

Don't know about Easter Monday - we used to go up there on Good Friday when we were kids.

I know that my niece and her mates are planning to go up there this afternoon, although I suspect, I'm afraid, that their intentions are not so innocent as egg-rolling or seeing the fair.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: John J
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 08:32 AM

I've not seen a fair up there, nor egg rolling - that's not to say it doesn't happen though. I've walked around there over previous Easters although I can't remember if it was ever on an Easter Monday.

Does sound like fun though!

JJ

Subject: Folklore: Egg rolling, Rivington Pike, Easter Mon
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 08:10 AM

When I lived in Horwich in Lancashire (UK) in the early 1950s, we used to walk up to the old hunting lodge on the top of Rivington Pike on Easter Monday. There was always a fair up there - heaven knows how they got up there in those days - and we kids would roll our hard-boiled, hand-painted Easter eggs down the hill and chase after them. Then, having looked at all the stalls and tried out some of the treats, filled with candy-floss and ice-cream and carrying cheap wooden toys, we'd walk home through the Chinese Gardens. The gardens were part of the estate of Lord Lever, the soap king from Port Sunlight, who owned chunks of Lancashire in those days - and may still do, for all I know. Sometimes we'd stop for tea and cakes at Rivington Barn. Then it was back to work for the men on Tuesday morning, and back to school for us.

Anyone else ever go up the Pike at Easter? Is the fair still there, and do kids still roll eggs? Probably not, but I'd be interested to hear.