Who Travels Furtherest To Shrigley This August ?

Celebrating Shrigley’s 200 anniversary has led to a search to see who travels the furtherest to Shrigley this August

The search is underway for the person who travels furthest to Shrigley this August.

The village is celebrating the 200th anniversary of its foundation with a community festival over the weekend of August 9 to 11 — and a prize is on offer for the former villager who travels furthest to take part.

The organisers have announced an international Back to Shrigley day on Saturday 10 August, with people invited to take their photo in a selfie frame with the landmark Shrigley clock in the background.

The organising committee said it is aware of families travelling from England and Scotland to the big day, but expects the winner to come from even further afield.

Families will also be encouraged to make their mark on maps showing the original village and its streets that have been lost to history including Bank Row, River Row, Short Row and Field Row.

This will allow families to plot exactly who lived in which house before bulldozers moved in, between 1968 and 1970, to knock down the village.

Shrigley-born Fr Brian Watter, who is chairman of Shrigley 200,  said: “With the bicentenary celebrations we would like to highlight the importance Shrigley had as a model village when it was first established in 1824.

“And we would like to make sure the younger generations of today are aware of the story of Shrigley with John Martin and the importance of the Utitz family in reinvigorating Shrigley with the tannery in the late 1930’s. 

“We would like to engage with people scattered all over the world who lived or worked in Shrigley.” 

It was John Martin who established the village in 1824, setting up a cotton spinning mill on the site of a flour mill. 

He developed Shrigley into a self-contained industrial village, one of around half a dozen developed by enterprising mill owners in 19th century Ireland.

It was one of the first of what became known as ‘Model” villages’, carefully planned with well-designed housing, a school, a village hall and plenty of recreational facilities.

The stand out event is an appearance by the Swing Time Starlets on the night of Saturday 10 August.

Villagers are being asked to relive the dance hall era of Shrigley’s Martin Hall with this all-professional close harmony, vintage trio as they perform songs from wartime, Holywood’s Golden Age of swing and retro pop.

The other highlights of the weekend include a children’s sports day, a permanent photo/history wall display for visitors to the village; and history walking trails.

Support for the festival has come from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with funding provided through National Lottery players.