Eccles can be quite a boisterous place in the evenings and weekends but did you know that Eccles used to hold its own Wakes street party which were held over three days on the first Sunday after the 25 August that began on the feast day of St Mary, to whom the Parish Church is dedicated.
The Wakes are said to have had their origins in the ancient custom of rush bearing when people would bring cartloads of rushes to spread over the church floor.
The carts and the people themselves would dress up for the ocassion and celebrate with music and dance.
Howver by the 19th Century the Wakes had become a somewhat less than pious affair, races and competitions were held as well as blood sports, these included bull and bear-baiting and cock fighting along Church Street.
Early posters for the event advertised women’s races in which they could win a smock, blood sports were openly encouraged, people would dress up for these events which would often end up in drunkeness and fighting.
Eventually the local residents had decided that enough was enough and in 1877 the Home Secretary, at the request of the Eccles Local Board, banned the Wakes.
Interestingly enough the Wakes moved temporarily to open land behind the now demolished Golden Cross pub in Patricroft and continued for several more years, hopefully less rowdier.
We still have a reminder of the Eccles Wakes in Eccles in the form of a mural that was painted by artist Ed Povey in 1980 and then in October 2010 it was decdided that the mural was in such a bad state of affairs that a new one was commisioned.
At the end of June 2012 Eccles shoppers saw graphic artist, Chris Butcher and his partner, Sarah Yates, from Faunagraphic, planning and painting the mural which brings the artwork more upto date.
This painting by Manchester artist Joseph Parry dates from 1822 and shows Eccles Wakes in all its finery and is on view at The Victorian Gallery at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.
