Honley Feast (1868)

The 1868 Honley Feast took place between Sunday 20 September and Wednesday 23 September.

In the weeks before the feast, the Chronicle reported that water was scarce and that locals had to travel some distance to get any, so there were fears that the home brewed ale would not be as plentiful as in previous years. They also reported a voice had been heard calling out "gooyd pickling onions at thrippince a quairt, gooyd damsil plums at thrippince a quairt, an gooyd red cabbige at a reasonable rate" and one local greengrocer had sold "more than fifty dozen of red cabbages."

Huddersfield Chronicle (19/Sep/1868)

On Thursday 17 September, a Grand Fine Art, Scientific, and Industrial Exhibition was opened at the Lockwood Mechanics' Institute was opened by the Rev. T.B. Bensted, the Vicar of Lockwood. It was hoped that those travelling to the feast via Lockwood who attended would leave "purified, elevated, dignified, and educated by the exhibition."

For the opening day of the feast, a number of Honley landlords had hired "singers, fiddlers, piano players, etc", much to the "great annoyance of all who had any regard for the Sabbath, and who loudly denounced such conduct as calculated to bring Honley into discredit."

On the Monday of the feast, a cheap day trip to Hull via Goole was offered, with the Chronicle stating that "a more interesting and pleasant day's out cannot be desired."

The Chronicle reported there was a "very pleasant sight" on the Tuesday when the female inmates of the Deanhouse Workhouse were brought to feast by the matron, treating them to rides on the roundabout, "which pleased the poor creatures very much."