FAMILY tradition as well as village history was again kept alive as the sun shone on Greenfield’s ancient Maundy Thursday ‘fair.’
The market at Road End was reputedly mentioned in the Magna Carta.
Legend has it the 1215 document – signed by King John at Runnymede – decrees at least one stall must open on Maundy Thursday every year.
If not, the privilege provided by Magna Carta would cease and an Act of Parliament would be required to re-start what was originally known as a ‘chartered pot fair’.
There have been times when the gathering at the junction of Chew Valley Road and Kinders Lane has come close to extinction.
When tradition was again threatened in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Greenfield greengrocer, Eric Ashworth, said it with flowers to ensure the fair survived.
Daughter Eve Scott, selling items to raise funds for Epilepsy Research, explained: “My father used to run the greengrocers at 120 Chew Valley Road.
“One year when it looked like the fair might not take place and no one had turned up, he took a bucket of daffodils from the shop to sell.”
Eve’s grandfather, Frank, previously ran the shop while great grandfather, Joseph Ashworth was the village blacksmith.
While not as busy as in its heyday, Road End Fair continues to be a major part of Greenfield’s Easter tradition.
And fine weather ensured a good number of stallholders, all raising funds for worthy causes including: Macmillan Cancer Support, Francis House Children’s Hospice, St Mary’s Church, Greenfield, Greenfield Whit Walks and the Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
Please support if you can and help keep a Saddleworth tradition alive. Stalls will be open until at least 12 noon.
• Next year’s Maundy Thursday Fair is scheduled for April 6.
Uncle Frank definitely was the local greengrocer, cousin Eric his son worked at Greenfield Mill, his two girls Evelyn and from memory Susan I used to go and play with when they were very little.
My mother’s father Albert Ashworth a master farrer and wheelwright owned the smithy and the warf cottages just below, Uncle Fred ran it after his father died, the only Joe Ashworth I know was my cousin who as a child emigrated to Canada and we emigrated to Australia……a year later in 1967.