Walking Day in Standish
From Standish Wiki
Preserving our Traditions
by Keith Douglas
It appears that my opportunities to show-off by singing the hymn ‘The Church’s One Foundation’ all the way through without a hymn-sheet have been greatly reduced! My familiarity with this particular hymn is related to its traditional airing at the conclusion of the annual Walking Day procession in Standish Market Place. Alas, this specific piece of Standish history, as with so many other ancient traditions and customs, has been allowed to disappear, as the procession now terminates in a schoolyard.
Walking Day in Standish dates back further than any living person can remember. The equivalent ‘Whit Walk’ parade in Manchester and Salford this year (2007) was the 205th and there is good reason to assume that the Standish walk, and those of other Wigan churches, originated at about the same time.
The traditional ‘procession of witness’ is most common in the North West of England, more usually occurring at Whitsuntide, and sprang out of the Sunday School movement first pioneered in 1784. The idea behind this movement was to free the children to have some fun on Sunday after working under wretched conditions during the week in manufacturing industries.
Naturally, after so long, walking days in Standish and elsewhere have changed and evolved. Nothing stays the same forever. The most significant change of course, which I fully approve of, is the expression of Christian unity by the three Standish churches in holding a joint walking day for the last 20 years or so.
But I think I can put forward a good case for the procession to terminate in the Market Place with a short ceremony in the shadow of the one symbol which unites all Christians in Standish.
The argument against retaining this ancient custom revolves around the apparent difficulty in closing the Market Place to traffic due to the prohibited left turn at the traffic lights. This is a spurious argument for two reasons. The first is based on our right to peaceful procession. The London police regularly close-off sections of the city to accommodate anti-war, BNP, trade union and other marches, and Princess Street was closed recently as a result of the G8 protests in Edinburgh. If pressed, our local police would be required to make similar concessions. Secondly, traffic coming up Rectory Lane can be diverted via St Wilfrid’s Road and Glebe Road.
Where there’s a will…………
