Bibles and Black Puddings.

I normally go to church once a year, to the school Christmas concert held at Christ Church in Walshaw. I always unfortunately have prior arrangements for the other school/church events. This week however I have crossed the threshold twice, and both times to new churches. I went to St Anne's church in Tottington on Tuesday, for the funeral of a neighbour. I'd never been in before, even though I've lived here for over 20 years. It is lovely inside, and there was standing room only - even the balcony was full. H has joined cubs at the Rector of Bury's own Troop (ROBOTs), so we had to go to Bury Parish Church for church parade. Again, I'd never been in, and that was beautiful.

There was a lot of ceremony, and it was quite complicated. We had a hymn book, a booklet, and 2 other leaflets full of instructions, so if you happened to be looking at the correct sheet you had an idea of what was going on. The audience had to give lots of responses, and some of these were sung. They must have been going for years to know what tune to reply in. I had given H instructions about what it would be like, and he coped very well (I don't think he has ever been to a normal service). I had warned him about what goes on with communion, and he just copied everyone else and did OK. I was surprised though. Communion was really organised. Two people carrying big sticks took half of the congregation each. They stood at the end of each row to control when people could make their way to the front. When the man with the stick got to our row he took one look and missed us out! I was amazed (it isn't very welcoming is it?) as he let everyone else go up. I had my posh silk colourful jacket on (£7 from Cancer Research) so I'd made an effort. I thought they would want everyone to get blessed. We decided that perhaps we didn't put enough in the collection to have a share of the wine.

As we had been being holy we didn't get to the Ramsbottom farmer's market until a bit later than normal. This will happen from now on as both events are on the 2nd Sunday of the month. This Sunday was a bit special though, as Ramsbottom was host to the Official World Black Pudding Throwing Championship. Legend has it that during the War of the Roses both armies ran out of ammunition and threw food at each other instead. The championship is some light Lancashire v Yorkshire rivalry. It used to be held at The Corner Pin pub in Stubbins, but when that closed down the championship was saved and now takes place on Bridge Street in Ramsbottom where it has been since 2003. Yorkshire puddings are piled onto a plinth 20 feet off the ground, and the object is to fell as many as possible by throwing 3 x 6oz (competition weight!) Bury black puddings at them. Until 1954 any throwing action was accepted, but after something prompted the rules to change and now only underarm throwing can be used.

The marker for competitors to throw from is 'The Golden Grid' (yes, really). This is where competitors from yesteryear stood, and there are all sorts of stories about its origin (I doubt any are true). The Golden Grid is kept at a secret location in Stubbins, but on the 2nd Sunday of September every year it leaves its hideaway and makes the journey to Ramsbottom by steam train on the East Lancashire Railway. When it embarks at Rammy it is 'piped' up the road to The Royal Oak and placed the correct distance away from the plinth. This year Rammy was quite quiet, but it had been raining. When it rains the Yorkshire puddings absorb water making them heavy and difficult to dislodge, so they have to be changed more often. In 2002 frozen ones were used, but they froze together and some of the lowest scores ever were recorded. Bridge Street is closed for a few hours, and anyone of any age can compete. Running alongside the championship is Pudfest, a festival of (usually) local bands that this year sounded OK. The TV cameras are normally filming. This year though it was CBBC so I don't even know the names of the 'celebrities'.

Talking of celebrities, official summaries of over 6 million wills have recetly been released, and the wills of some of Manchester's historical figures are interesting. Emmeline Pankhurst is classed as havig died poor, in a nursing home in 1928. She left just £86 (about £4000 in today's money), which I didn't think was too bad! In contrast though John Rylands left £2.5M (about £250M today) so that was more than enough for his 3rd wife to build the library as a sign of her love for him. Sir Charles Halle left £8459 (£830,000) in 1895.

I'm trying to change, but I have definitely got to that age where I think about pensions and wills! I'll try to find some excitement to write about for next week.