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Mayor and his wife travel back in time

17/ 5/2008

IT’S not every day that workers going home at tea-time have a visual reminder of times past – but that’s what happened one sunny July evening in Rochdale town centre in 1967.

Hundreds of people looked on with a mixture of awe and fascination as an 18th century coach and four trundled through the town.

With a fanfare from the liveried guard, the coach drew up outside the Town Hall, where the mayor and mayoress, Alderman Harry Howorth and Mrs Howorth, were waiting to welcome its occupants.

Depicting the style of transport of 1767, the coach was followed by a 1967-style car.

Both were heading for Blackpool and the Royal Lancashire’s 200th anniversary show.

Aboard the coach was a girl attired in 18th century crinoline and in the 1967, 100mph Ford Executive, was a young girl wearing a mini-mini skirt.

The mayor and mayoress climbed up into the driving seat of the coach and, watched by a crowd, had an outrider’s view of the four fine horses – a pair of greys and a pair of bays – which were being used for the journey to Blackpool.

In the mayoral party were Lord Cozens-Hardy, chairman of the Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society, and George Glazzard and Herbert Fowden, who have strong associations with the Lancashire show.

The four-horse coach and the 30 horse power Ford car were making a special journey from Manchester to the Fylde resort as a publicity drive in connection with the show’s bi-centenary year.

The trip had started in St Ann’s Square where the first show was held in the same year as the first £1 bank notes were issued and John Adams replaced George Washington as president of the United States.

It was appropriate that the cavalcade called at Rochdale because the Royal Lancashire Show was once held here.

Among the crowd who gathered round the cavalcade were members of the Rochdale Young Farmers’ Club which had two stands at the show in Blackpool.