THE new Mayor of Austerlands Stuart Cook said it is “an honour” to take on the historic role.
Stuart, who lives in Scouthead, was officially appointed Mayor during a special ceremony at Saddleworth’s oldest hostelry, The Old Original, which recently celebrated 300 years of serving customers.
He received the ceremonial clog-iron chain of office from Andrew Heffernan, representing his late father Derek who passed away in 2019 while serving as Mayor.
The light-hearted ceremony was conducted by former Mayor of Austerlands Roger Fielding dressed in his toastmaster’s livery of red tailcoat with white bow tie and gloves.
As part of the proceedings Stuart became an honorary Yorkshireman when he received a Yorkshire rose emblem tie presented by Michael Hall of Saddleworth’s White Rose Society.
Stuart becomes the civic head of Oldham’s smallest municipality and is the 21st Mayor of the current era. A number of his predecessors were in attendance to witness the event.
The investiture traditionally takes place before the annual Whit Friday Brass Band Contests when the new Mayor is asked to lead up the first band onto Dawson’s Field.
Stuart said: “It is an honour to be Mayor. Thank you for selecting me and I hope I do it justice.
“I have been involved with Whit Friday since I was a child and still want to be involved as much as possible. I do not want it to cease so the more people that can get involved the better.
“It will be great to lead first band up on Whit Friday with family and friends around.”
Andrew received a reduced size clog-iron which is normally presented to retiring mayors.
Roger commented: “It has taken three years to appoint a new Mayor, during which quite a few things have happened.
“We lost Derek during his time in office but he still made his mark in so many different ways.
“Out of all of his roles of office I think this one gave him the most pleasure because it was from the people and community he loved.”
There is evidence that the Mayor of Austerlands title dates back to the late 1940s or early 1950s, when George Corbett, a general worker at Austerlands Mill, carried the status because of the smartness of his dress.
This tradition was revived in 1998, following the discovery of the traditional clog-iron behind a beer barrel stillage in the cellar of the Red Lion, Austerlands.
Since then a lavatory chain, adorned by dog tags and engraved with the names of the various mayors have been added to enhance the clog-iron’s official insignia.
Past mayors also receive a smaller version of the clog-iron, which is hung from a surplus Saddleworth Olympics medal ribbon and worn on special occasions.
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