Whit Friday is the name given to the first Friday after Pentecost or Whitsun (White Sunday) and the date has a historical cultural weight in the Northwest of England as it is the date Whit Walks traditionally took place. On that very day in 1870 a brass band contest was held in Stalybridge and that expanded to further events in Uppermill and Mossley in 1884. From the germination of these initial competitions there was then a metamorphosis into a huge brass band event held in the Saddleworth district and the eleven villages that are within that vicinity. This is now known as the annual Whit Friday Brass Band contest.
A Whit Walk. Image Credit Manchester Evening News
It attracts hundreds of bands from around the country and the world and generates thousands of spectators. It is meticulously planned and organised as each band has their own individual transport to ferry them from location to location throughout the day and there is even a code of practice they sign up to.
Each village has an event on an hourly basis where the groups gather at a start point, play a song of their choice whilst heading to the stage where they undertake their competition song which is marked by individual judges. There is a minimum number of village events to attend for a band to have a valid cumulative score to enter into the overall competition. The whole shindig runs from 3pm until 11pm at night.
I had heard about this event many years hence and always wanted to attend, so in 2024 that came to fruition with Jo and Paul alongside Gill and I making the sabbatical trip. Aside from driving, which was an absolute no-no, the only realistic form of transport was on a busy train where we could alight at Greenfield station.
You could put in some serious mileage if you wanted to cover all the locations, so we had to pick and choose and decided to head to Uppermill first as we had heard that it was the busiest location as the day progressed. It was about a 15-minute walk down the country road, and at one particularly treacherous road crossing there was a young punk speeding who very nearly mowed down a couple of punters we were walking down with!
After that drama, we entered into the village and liked it instantly and we headed to the march start point and waited for the 3pm bells to officially mark the event open for business. There were lots of hostelries and outside beer points, so we naturally purchased a cold beverage.
Uppermill High Street. Image Credit saddind.co.uk
Thus, we caught a suite of bands at the Uppermill Street Stage, and they are too numerous to review but I will reference the Brighouse and Rastrick brass band. They formed in 1881 and derive from Brighouse in West Yorkshire and are known around the world and they famously played a version of the Floral Dance that reached number 2 in the UK Charts in November 1977 and stayed there for six weeks and was only blocked from the top spot by Wings ‘Mull of Kintyre’. They have also been champions six times of this very event since 2011.
At this juncture, we saw Dobcross Brass Monkeys, Boarshurst Silver band, Langley band, Redbridge band and Maltby Miners Welfare band. It was a very chilled atmosphere with interaction with the crowd on the heavily populated pavements who were gradually increasing their merriment levels with the numerous hostelries doing a roaring trade. I fully intend to return here for a proper look round on a quieter day.
We traversed round to the playing fields where the Uppermill Stage was located and watched a few acts playing their performance piece. These included the Goldstone band, Ireland Colliery Chesterfield band, Uppermill School band and also the far travelling Lambertville band from New Jersey who were formed in 2007 to play British style brass.
Munchies kicked in at that point and we raided a local chippy for a tasty snack and then walked back past the train station, considered heading down the hill to the Greenfield stage but eventually decided to walk a little further to the Friezland Stage.
Goldstone band in full flow. Image Credit flickr.com
We stood on the road opposite the church and observed that the bands introductory tunes included the ‘Wallace and Gromit theme’, ‘Take me Home Country Roads’ and my personal favourite was a jaunty version of ‘Baggy Trousers’. The performers there included Amersham band, Lancaster University band, Ravenswood band named after a renowned marching track and the Backworth Colliery band formed in Newcastle in 1878.
We then needed to warm up so gravitated back to the homely Railway Inn opposite the station. The pub has been there for over 150 years and does not provide food however does apparently have pork pies with various mustard options!
They also have regular music and that night’s band started to set up their kit, but we left before they began playing as we took a cautionary decision to catch an earlier train as they can be a tad unreliable on that particular branch line. Another busy train back into Piccadilly was the final journey leg thereby completing a fine afternoon out!