‘The party mustered strong, and danced incessantly to the music of a very efficient band, under the leadership Mr John Scott.’<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
All that \u2018incessant dancing\u2019 was carried out \u2018in the greatest harmony and goodwill\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(A repeat event two years later saw more than sixty couples dancing \u2013 possibly also incessantly \u2013 until 4am on New Year\u2019s Day).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Year\u2019s Eve seems to have been a traditional date for groups to get together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 100 members (and their friends) of the Independent United Order of Mechanics celebrated their 22nd anniversary, at the Grey Goat Inn, Carlisle. Members of the United Ancient Order of Druids held their annual ball at the Half Moon Inn Wigton. The volounteers of the 2nd Cumberland (Whitehaven) Rifle Volunteers celebrated their second anniversary with supper in the Oddfellows\u2019 new hall, in Lowther Street. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the first anniversary and tea party of the Wetheral Total Abstinence Society was held at the house of Mr. George Tiffin, where between 60-70 people <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u2018partook of the social and non-inebriating cup\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Showing that you don\u2019t need alcohol to have a good time, they were later joined by dozens of others in the village schoolroom. Once the annual meeting was out of the way, there were \u2018some excellent lectures,\u2019 and \u2018some very appropriate melodies were sung\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1863<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1862 and 1863 were hard years, with December headlines more about \u2018families\/workers in distress\u2019 in Cumberland than any kind of parties. No doubt those struggling to find work hoped the new year of 1864 would see an upturn in the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James Mawson, of Lowther, penned a jolly few Lines Written on New Year\u2019s Eve<\/em>, about time\u2019s chariot (unoriginal, James), rolling \u2018heavily o\u2019er the prostrate year\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1862 had been a \u2018year of passing sorrow\u2019. There are a few optimistic lines after that, but reading it might have turned even the most-temperate of folk to reach for a glass of something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the Dean of Carlisle, Francis Close, in 1863, seems to have feared that a New Year\u2019s Eve ball at Caldewgate Reading Room was a corrupting influence on young people. What most saw as \u2018innocent and harmless amusement,\u2019 he apparently feared would lead to \u2018vice and immorality\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1864<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Workington. The Primitive Methodists of Workington sat down to a fruit banquet in their chapel in John Street. Some 200 people enjoyed\u2026 whatever a \u2018fruit banquet\u2019 was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1865<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Heads Nook. More than 300 people enjoyed a Penny Reading programme of readings and songs. These included Edgar Allen Poe\u2019s The Raven<\/em>, read by Mr M Salkeld. And Ca\u2019 the Yowes to the Knowes<\/em>, sung by William Dalton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n1866<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Peat, William Gray and Wilson Smith were \u2018three respectable young men\u2019. But for some reason, they decided to vandalise the Old Brewery (Carlisle). The facts of who broke a window shutter (the subject of the subsequent court case) are muddled. But they were fined 2s 6d each, plus damages and costs. The report bears the puzzling headline:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u2018Foolish freaks on New Year\u2019s Eve\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
1867<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Dean Francis Close held \u2018a very strange prayer meeting\u2019 on New Year\u2019s Eve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u2018The performances in question consisted of singing, expositions and prayer (?) and appear to have been highly irreverent, nay painfully grotesque in their character\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It seems that he had a go at other members of the clergy, calling them hypocrites, guilty of paganism and popery, wolves in sheep\u2019s clothing\u2026 This drew a lengthy letter (quoted above) of objection to the Carlisle Journal <\/em>from the Rev Charles Moyes Preston, of Warcop Vicarage \u2013 my 4th cousin 5 times removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd today…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Whether you intend to see out this \u2018prostrate year\u2019 with a fruit banquet, or some incessant dancing, Cumbrian Characters<\/em> wishes you well, and hopes 2024 proves a kinder one for the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Year\u2019s Eve is traditionally a time for Reviews of the Year. Partly because people do like to reflect back on the previous 12 months, as they prepare to welcome in the next. But mainly because it\u2019s a good way to fill news pages when \u2018nothing much is happening\u2019 and the usual go-to sources of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[320,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customs-and-traditions","category-social-history"],"yoast_head":"\n
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