The origins of the Rushcart are uncertain but one school of thought
is that the practice is pre-Christian.
The custom of carrying rushes to church has grown into a festival in
many parts of the country but in the south Pennines, a more elaborate
method grew. The rushes were originally taken to church on a sledge
but this method gave way to placing the rushes in a cart built up in
the shape of a haystack.
The rushes would be spread on the clay floor of the church, often mixed
with fragrant herbs and wild flowers, to insulate the congregation from
the cold during the hard winter months.
The practice was discontinued at St.Chads, Uppermill following a visit
from Bishop Law in February 1821 who, upon seeing rushes twelve to fifteen
inches deep, told the Church-warden that the church wasn't fit to stable
his horse. St.Chads was re-built with a stone floor in 1844. The Rushcarts
continued to call at the church but the rushes were sold to the landlord
of the Church Inn as animal bedding.
The Rushcart grew into a festival which was held on the annual wakes
or mill holiday which often coincided with the feast of the saint to
whom the local Parish Church is dedicated. Every village or hamlet would
build a rushcart and each would try to out-do the neighbouring villages
by building a bigger or more elaborate structure with the front covered
by a sheet decorated with tinsel and artificial flowers and hung with
polished copper, brass and silver household items.
The whole procession was drawn by men hauling on poles or 'stangs' fixed
to the cart by strong ropes and was accompanied by music and, very often,
the local Morris side. The Uppermill Rushcart became known as the Longwood
Thump.
The coming of the railways led to a decline in the interest in rushcarts
as the local population were able to travel farther afield for their
annual break and their numbers dwindled.
It was in Uppermill that the rushcart had it's final fling. The 1889
rushcart was so badly built that it fell to pieces but the landlord
of the Commercial Inn formed a committee to oversee the building of
the 1890 rushcart and employed a sailor named Tweedale to carry out
the task. Even so, rushcarts eventually died out in the early twentieth
century.
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