Wakes Weeks - Holidays

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Hello there!
I am trying to find out what the equivalent holiday would have been for the Lancashire wakes holidays in Hebden Bridge and in Keighley. Did the mills in Hebden and Keighley have their own holidays?
Thank you!

[fsharpminor]

Well in the 50's/60's what was known as Keighley Feast week was always the last full week of July. My father was always off (DSG) that week, and as kids we invariably went off to some boarding house at the seaside, a different place every year.

[Andy Wade]

I has born in Halifax and we always had Wakes Week holidays. Spring Bank over here though.

[alumpot]

Keighley feast also known as engineers fortnight. first week was the week containing the last wednesday in June and the week following it.

[parkwoodgirl]

Keighey Feast Week - 1947 my first holiday away with my friends. We saved all winter for a week at Butlins Holiday Camp in Skegness. The camp re-opened that year after being a naval training base during the war. It was such an adventure after years of travel restrictions and blackouts. Food was still on ration but at 16 this was no problem for kids like us who had grown up on rations. I had my hair permed at Olive Madders at the top of Low Mill Lane - I had more curls that Shirley Temple!
There were six of us, four girls and two boys. The camp was austere to say the least. It was just as though the navy had moved out and we had moved in. Concrete 'chalets' with bunk beds. Noisy dining rooms, fantastic swing music every night in the two ballrooms. It was such a success we saved up and the following year we celebrated Keighley Feast by going to Butlins at Filey....gluttons for punishment! Great days...........

[lawkholmelaner]

Keighley folk, immediately post war, had 2 weeks holiday when most companies shut down. It started with Keighley Parish Feast week which as I recall began with the last full week in July and was followed by Bank Holiday Week which included the first Monday in August. That was usually the week of the Headingley Test. Sad to relate, I saw England skipper, the great Len Hutton bowled out first ball there by Aussie Ray Lindwall in 1953. Hutton, England's first professional captain, led the team to an Ashes victory in the final test at The Oval.

On the first Saturday of Feast Week, Keighley railway station was throng with holidaymakers. People today would be gob-smacked to see the way they inter-related - greeting friends, neighbours, acquaintances and workmates, swapping details of their holiday plans. The mainline platforms were packed with those heading West and North and those on the up platform for Leeds,and points East and South.

One year, having returned home from a school holiday in Bank Holiday week while my parents were still away, I was taken "up-town" by my brother in law and his mate to visit the ale houses of Church Green and North Street. In The Star, I overheard one chap call to another - "What you doing sat ower yon. Tha's usully owwer 'ere". "Ah, tha sees, am on my 'olidays" was the reply. Not everybody went off.

[keighlian]

I also was at that Test Match at Headingley but my memory says Hutton was out second Ball !!
My other hero Denis Compton was also out second ball, inevitably caught at leg slip !!

[elfremar]

I seem to remember the last week in July was Keighley Feast week,and the following week was called Bowling Tide because that was the start of Bradford holidays.

[bridgebabe]

There was also Manningham Tide in Bradford held in Lister (Manningham) Park. Not sure exactly when but I think just after Bowling Tide. Perhaps the mills in the different areas closed slightly different times?
My husband remembers in Keighley, where his father had a van for work in the late 1940s / early 1950s, taking the luggage of people in the 'street' to Bridlington where they were all spending their holidays - home from home.

[alumpot]

Keighley feast holidays, this was always worked out using the following formula. Fist Keighley Feast week was the week containing the last Wednesday in June. Believe this was decided between employers and the Engineers Union, maybe sombody is able top confirm this

[les972]

Well I'm glad that I'm not the only one losing my memory. All we can tell by looking at the postings is that Keighley Feast was sometime between June and August.

[keighlian]

The confusion arises because, sometime during the 1960's or 70's, the date of Keighley Feast Week was changed.
Certainly in the 1940's & 50's Feast Week was the week preceding August Bank Holiday.
Bank Hol week was the one commencing with the FIRST Monday in August.
Keighley Feast week was the one commencing with the last Monday in July.
Subsequently August Bank holiday moved to the end of the month & Keighley Feast week moved into June, causing some consternation because the schools were still in term time when the factories were on holiday.

[kellytica]

I think the Feast dates were changed in either 1974 or 1975.
Somewhere among my many notes I have a copy of the
'rules' used regarding how the dates for the Feast holidays were
fixed. I'll try & dig out the note & post here.

[kellytica]

Despite searching my notes re the old Feast Week dates I'm afraid I haven't been able to lay my hands on the note. I seem to think it was as Keighlian suggested above.

[fsharpminor]

My father always had last week July as holiday in the 50's and 60's.
He worked at DSG. This was called Keighley Feast week

(Oops sorry I already posted this earlier in the thread , premature senility setting in !)

[5sizefive]

Wasn't it cahnged to the last week in June because it was thought that we had better weather at the end of June as opposed to the last week in July?