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Every year in August the streets of Saddleworth villages resound to the noise of drums, squeezeboxes and clogs as the annual Rushbearing, known as ‘The Longwood Thump’, takes place over two days.
It is a festival dating back to pagan times but early in the twentieth century it ceased to happen until the 1970s when it was reintroduced.
It is a dancing, merrymaking and ale-swilling weekend which attracts Morrismen and dancers from all over the country — and sometimes from other countries as well. The Rushcart is pulled from Greenfield, through Uppermill to Delph, which is shown on the video, then back to Uppermill on the Saturday. On Sunday the two-ton cart is pulled from Uppermill to Saddleworth Church, where the rushes are mixed with fragrant herbs and symbolically strewn over the aisles of the Church before an afternoon of dancing in front of the Church Inn and Cross Keys Inn in Saddleworth.
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