Neston Ladies’ Day: Centuries of caring and tradition

May 5 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

Centuries of caring and tradition

Neston Ladies’ Day has been the highlight of the town’s calendar for hundreds of years. Emma Pinch reports

IT’S known as the other Ladies’ Day. Like a certain event at Aintree, it attracts the crowds, the acres of frills and occasionally the good weather. But, at Neston’s Ladies’ Day, you won’t find anyone behaving raucously.

The Ladies’ Day Walk, held on the first Thursday in June every year, is the highlight in the social calendar of the redoubtable Neston Female Society.

With the motto “bear each other’s burdens” it was formed in Jane Austen’s day to shore up financial support and comfort for respectable women left behind when their husbands answered the call of duty to go off and fight against Napoleon.

To this day, it pays out £20 to members on the birth of any child – born in wedlock, of course – and £60 to the family in the event of the member’s death and about £1.50 towards the cost of the doctor’s death certificate.

The society’s historical charter also dictates that the secretary of the group is male, and Rob Halsall is the man who currently holds that honour, as he has for the past 20 years. Right now, it is the busiest time of his year, in the run-up to Ladies’ Day, when around 200 children and 80 adults will be in the procession and thousands more will flock to line the route.

“On June 5, I’ll be out at 7am making sure there are no pot- holes for the kids to fall into,” says Rob, a 62-year-old former steel worker. He does it because it is part of Neston’s history – and his own.

“I make sure my voice gets heard. I don’t let them go on talking about holidays and knitting.

“I’m used to being surrounded by women. I had seven sisters, and when I was growing up, Ladies’ Day was always the highlight of the year. It used to be a red hot day, the sign of the summer coming. The girls would put on floral dresses, which they’d get, along with shoes and socks from the Co-Op and the family would pay for them later on in the year.”

Keeping Neston’s proudest tradition on track hasn’t always been a walk in the park.

Originally the Neston Female Friendly Society, they had to jettison the “friendly” label because Financial Services Authority costs of £1,300 per year could not be supported by membership fees of just £2.

Police reluctance to safeguard the route free of charge a few years ago could have threatened its future but, in the end, they backed down. Plans to build a Sainsbury’s in the big space where the fair is normally held – essential to attract the families and children – are grounds for current concerns.

But though it’s the last remaining society of its type in Britain, membership and finances, at present, are healthy. It is regarded with much pride and affection locally. Wallis’s Amusements provides the fair for the Ladies’ Day. Membership – currently at about 180 – is still often passed on from mother to daughter as it was for treasurer Betty Evans, 58. She has been taking part in the Ladies’ Day walk since the age of five.

“It was always my birthday the week before so I would get a new dress, shoes and ankle socks to walk in,” she says. “We would get our hair done specially at the hairdressers and all our cousins would come over on the train. It was like Christmas.

“In those days, the pubs shut at 10pm, and my most vivid memory is hearing the bagpipes and drums going round Neston Cross. I remember my mum taking me up there to dance around it. In the evening, it was just good fun then, despite the time. You looked forward to it because you were up late and usually off school the next day for the Whit holiday.

“What do I like about it? People are smiling, it’s a real day out. As a child, there was nothing like it, walking down the middle of the street, seeing things, people shouting at you, and it hasn’t changed much. Outside the town hall, seats are put out for the elderly, they come out and love to see it. I meet people I was at school with who no longer live in Neston. People even come from London and even New Zealand for it.”

The local florist makes the flower-garlanded staffs, but Betty prefers to make her own.

“My granddad made my staff. It’s wood painted white and tapered at the end. You need flowers that will stand up on it, like chrysanthemums. The staff was passed down from my auntie who used to walk but I’ve got no one to hand it down to, because I’ve got a son, not a daughter.” She might hand it down to the daughters of a friend she walks with. “But it won’t be for some time yet. We all say we will be there in our wheelchairs. It’s too good to miss.”

emmapinch@dailypost.co.uk