Whit Walks

[Christopher]

Whit Sunday is the seventh Sunday after Easter. It's a tradition in the Manchester area to hold "Whit Walks."
In Ashton the Whit Walk take place on the third Sunday of June although many other places in the area have their walks on Whit Sunday itself. Mossley and Saddleworth walks take place on Whit Friday, the Friday after Whit Sunday.

[Tuesday]

Whit Walks in Manchester...I remember them well. Wearing a new dress and new shoes and socks (and one awful year a bonnet - ugh!) we would all meet at the Sunday School room before being given our allotted place in the procession. It was great fun...how long ago did they cease or do they still go on??

[arthurchappell]

 PENTECOST - WHIT WEEK WALKS  -
http://www.arthurchappell.clara.net/pentecost.whit.week.walks.htm MY PAGE ON THE WHIT WEEK WALKS

[Tuesday]

PENTECOST - WHIT WEEK WALKS  -
http://www.arthurchappell.clara.net/pentecost.whit.week.walks.htm MY PAGE ON THE WHIT WEEK WALKS

Thanks Arthur...I enjoyed reading that!! (Do you know I never remember Walking in the rain either, how strange, maybe we have blanked it out as a memory just too horrible or maybe.....shades of Men In Black!! )
 I would love to see some photos of The Walks but they seem to be only very old ones available on line.

[migky]

The Italian community still have wit walks .  http://www.ancoatslittleitaly.com/

Migky

[arthurchappell]

Cheers for the link - worth it just for their ice cream jingles

[migky]

We have lots of old pictures of them walking in the 1960's .In our family, ours were icecream makers in the 1940's  here / Liverpool and Edinburgh. Not many left these days

Migky

[arthurchappell]

My grandfather was a good friend to the Itallian Granelli's who had an ice cream parlour in Ancoats - I seem to recall him mentioning that some of the family perished on a ship that Churchill had ordered to take Italian refugees out of Britain, but which got sunk by a German U-boat during WW2. My memory of the details is a lttle patchy though.

[migky]

This site might have some links to what you were talking about?

http://www.italian-heritage-ancoats.org.uk/italart2.htm

These are links for the Italians in Scotland and Liverpool.

http://www.scottiepress.org/projects/litaly.htm

http://www.scalan.co.uk/Italians.htm

Migky

[arthurchappell]

Cheers, will look - just found details on the ship itself. The Arandora Star, a terrible maritime tragedy comparable to the Titanic & Lucitania sinkings but relatively unknown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arandora_Star - My grandad despised Churchill as he thought he was largely responsible for it