Surprisingly,
apart from the photograph, little information is available.
Group standing on left:
Far left – Bill Simm, 2nd left – Adam
Ingram,
3rd left – Enos Laye
Adam Ingram and Enos Laye
were seen by Maud Karpeles when she visited Abram in 1932 – Bill Simm
was already dead by then.
Front row seated: Middle – Bill Blakely,
2nd right – Jim Shuttleworth
Middle row seated:
2nd right – Bill Hatton,
3rd from right – Peter Grimshaw (brother-in-law of Jim
Shuttleworth)
Back row seated: 1st left
– possibly Frank Molyneux (father-in-law of Cllr. William Wright)
3rd from left – Shuttleworth (forename not known)
Pole Bearer – possibly
Elisha Brook
Joe Hart is presumably
also on the photograph (since Maud Karpeles mentioned him). He was born in
1881 and the Mr and Mrs Hart who provided the meal for the dancers at
the Red Lion in 1880 were his parents, John and Mary. He was said
still to have the “garland” in 1932. Joe Hart was very well known in
Abram as he was the Council plumber but surprisingly no-one has yet been
able to identify him as being on the photo.
Peter Grimshaw (who was
aged 17 in 1901) was later landlord of the Bucks Head until his death in
1942 at the age of 58. His widow and later his daughter continued to have
the pub until 1976. Peter Grimshaw’s daughter (an Abram Rose Queen in
her time) has come to watch the dancing in the early 1990’s. (See
photo) She
remembers her father dancing around the maypole which stood on the Morris
Dancers’ Ground in about 1913. However, it was definitely maypole
dancing and not the Morris Dance.
