Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Great Musgrave: Rushbearing


included in:-	St Theobald, Musgrave
	Great Musgrave: Rushbearing
locality:-	St Theobald's Church
locality:-	Great Musgrave
civil parish:-	Musgrave (formerly Westmorland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	rushbearing
1Km square:-	NY7613 (etc)
10Km square:-	NY71

evidence:-	old text:- Gents Mag
source data:-	Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922. goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1843 part 2 p.572 "[St Theobald's Church] ..." "Over the chancel screen and walls are several garlands. These denote an ancient annual custom which takes place in July, called "Rush-bearing," when female children of the village go in procession to the church, and each deposits an offering of flowers, which remains there until the following year. A representation of this ceremony is given in the work known as "Westmoreland and Cumberland illustrated," accompanied by the following account of it:-" ""In some places, to the present day, the church floor is annually strown with rushes; and in several others, as at Ambleside, the ceremonial is still preserved. We have collected from various sources the characteristic features of recorded rush-bearings, in which, though the object is the same, the materiel of the festivity is somewhat different."

MN photo:-	Rushbearing here is the first Saturday in July near the feast of St Theobald. The girls carry crowns, the boys crosses, which are hung up in the church till the next year.
	BST15.jpg Rushbearing banner. (taken 11.5.2010) BST14.jpg Rushbearing favours, last year's. (taken 11.5.2010) BST17.jpg Rushbearing favours, last year's, girls' crowns. (taken 11.5.2010) BST16.jpg Rushbearing favours, last year's, boys' crosses. (taken 11.5.2010)

	BLX54.jpg Rushbearing, 6 July 1886. (taken 21.4.2006)

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