Rushden Feast

When Rushden Feast first started it was a great event in the town.  The factories would close for the week, and families would get together so a lot of houses were full of visitors, coming from the surrounding towns and villages.  The Moor Road School Log Book entry for 26th September 1895 shows that the school was closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon as it was Feast Week.   Traditionally the feast started on the Saturday following the 19th September and did so until about three years ago when it started to creep a bit earlier.  This year it starts on September 13th, opening  on the Friday evening instead of Saturday afternoon.

Sunday was the day for special services in the churches of the town and the festivities would start on the Monday.  There were football matches, tennis matches, and Mr. Moody, a tailor with a shop in the High Street, organised cricket matches at the Town Ground bringing together two teams of very high standard.  A lot of the cricket celebrities of those days appeared in these matches.

In later years there was the “Crockery King.”  He would have a stall outside the park and display baskets of crockery which he would hold up and toss about, selling it all at knock down prices, or at least that’s what he said.

Now it’s just ‘The Feast’ but there are still hot dogs and candyfloss, roundabouts for the small children, bumping cars for all ages and you can still ‘hook a duck’.  The big wheel has gone, no longer exciting enough, and is replaced by something much more scary that twists you round and upside down at a great height, should you be so inclined.  No doubt it will rain, it usually does, and we will all be calling it Rushden Feast weather!