Golden age of fun as Victorians delighted at Whitsuntide festival

Pentecost, also known as Whit Sunday is late this year, falling on the second Sunday of June.

- Keith Johnson.

Of course these days Whitsuntide is no longer a public holiday, the movable feast being replaced officially by the fixed Spring Bank Holiday in 1971, which we celebrate on the last Monday of May in 2025, writes Keith Johnson.

Many of the Whitsuntide traditions enjoyed by our ancestors of fairgrounds and processions may have been confined to the history books, but the memories linger on.

Many Whitsuntide features you may recall as a youngster were on display in Victorian times.

In 1858 Whit Monday was ushered in by a merry peel of the Parish Church bells and by the sound of fife and drum as numerous bands marched to their rendezvous. As early as six o'clock the Orchard, where the fairground had assembled on the Saturday, was thronged with juveniles and country youths and maidens full of jest and youthful jollity.

The fun there grew fast and furious until half past nine in the morning, at which time the procession of the Catholic Guilds of St. Wilfrid, St. Ignatius, St. Walburges, and St. Augustines was in full flow.

The participants displaying banners and emblems were led from St. Wilfrid's by the clergy and with a couple of tuneful bands they numbered over 2,000 and after following a lengthy route the procession culminated at St. Walburge's where High Mass was celebrated. That procession was followed by the Wesleyan Schools procession from Bow Lane into town with over 1,700 marching onto Fishergate and along Church Street with flags and banners galore.