Wakes Week holidays

Wakes Week holidays

Local historian Robert Leach presents a talk and shares images from his collection about the traditional Wakes Week holidays of Lancashire’s Cotton Mill-hands.

Across the North, mills close, shutters come down on the corner shops and the whole town joins the stampede for the railway and coach stations heading for Blackpool on their holidays.

So much to fit into one weeks holiday - seven miles of Promenade, the Pleasure Beach and Ice Drome, the Winter Gardens, the Tower with its magnificent ballroom, circus and aquarium, a ride out to Stanley Park and the tennis courts, a visit to the South Shore Baths, stroll the three piers, listen to the bands, play the amusement arcades and enjoy a show at the Grand Theatre.

All before returning to doffing rings in Darwen, winding in Wigan or tenting cards in Todmorden.

BSL available at this event.