By Paul Salveson

The Holcombe ‘point to point’ races attracted tens of thousands of visitors in its heyday from the 1920s to 1960s.

It started in 1921, using an informal ‘racecourse’ around Harwood and Ainsworth starting at Nab Gate. It was an off-shoot of the Holcombe Hunt and quickly became known as 'The Millworkers’ Grand National’.

Mills shut down for the afternoon to allow workers – and managers – to visit the races, drawing thousands from Bolton, Bury and Ramsbottom.

Former Bury Times editor Harold Heys recalled the “big strapping horses, one-day-a-year jockeys from schoolboys to beefy, middle-aged farmers; the landed gentry and the wags and the chancers.”

It was the brainchild of Myles Kenyon, Master of the Holcombe Hunt. The event was free – the only money that exchanged hands was for the race card, priced at 2/6d.

The first event, in April 1921, attracted about 40,000 people. The Bury Times said “the event was like a great picnic party – all classes were represented and all mingled together in joyous sport.”

Aerial view of the crowd at the Holcombe point to point, 1950

Aerial view of the crowd at the Holcombe point to point, 1950

It was a three mile course, with riders performing three circuits, jumping nine brushwood fences. Casualties, both riders and horses, were frequent.

The event kept on growing. The official history of the Holcombe Hunt said that by the late 1920s “we would not be surprised if the attendance numbered 100,000...not only was there a great assembly of people at the starting and finishing points, but practically at every point of vantage round the course.”

Joyce Haras remembers her mother talking about the races.

She said: “My mum and her sister were born and bred in Little Lever. When they were small children, their mum, used to walk them to the Holcombe races.

“They were very poor, so they were given a choice, ‘walk to the races and have an ice cream or travel by bus’. Mum said it was a real treat to go to the Holcombe races.”

People got there on foot, bicycle, charabanc and more than a few on horseback, pony-and-trap or car. As well as the mills shutting for the day, the kick-off at Bury’s Gigg Lane ground was postponed for a couple of hours to avoid a clash with the races. For the first event, a large number of coal miners from Radcliffe marched in procession to the course.

The great Lancashire artist L S Lowry did a painting of the races in 1953.

Action from a ladies’ race at Holcombe point to point

Action from a ladies’ race at Holcombe point to point

The races began at Nab Gate, Ainsworth, and took in a course around Ainsworth and Affetside (some locals called it ‘The Cockey Moor Races’ the old name for Ainsworth). Six races took place including a ‘Ladies’ Race’.

It was a lady, the redoubtable ‘Babs’ Court who managed the event for many years.

David Earnshaw remembers the races well,

He said: “I lived on Bradley Fold Road and the coaches from all over the country parked along the road - we would write down all the coach firms before going to the races. Nearly always a horse would fall at the water jump. The course ran near Barrack Fold Farm and Bentley Hall Farm. Always a great day.”

Harold Heys called it ‘English eccentricity at its daftest’. Anything could happen and sometimes did.

At one race a police horse caught sight of the thundering field of horses as they passed.

The horse bolted - with the constable on his back - and joined the race. They made it over four fences before the officer persuaded his steed to stop.

Major Hesketh, secretary of Holcombe Hung arrives at the point to point in style in 1926

Major Hesketh, secretary of Holcombe Hung arrives at the point to point in style in 1926

Peter Firth attended the races when he was a boy.

He recalls: “I remember walking there from Ainsworth in the late 60s or early 70s. I was very young but I recall large crowds and marquees, and horses racing in the distant fields around a course.

“The year after that it was cancelled ‘because of the weather’ it was said, and after that it wasn’t run on that site again.”

The races were increasingly dogged by wet weather, with several events having to be cancelled owing to heavy rain making the course impassable. An additional threat on the horizon was a proposal to build housing on part of the course.

A reluctant decision was taken in the late 1960s to move the event to a course at Whittington, near Kirkby Lonsdale though many people lived in hope that it would return to the Bolton area. In the early 2000s plans were well advanced to transfer the event to the Hulton Park estate but the deal fell through.

Many thanks to Harold Heys, Linda Nuttall and Andrew Rosthorn for their assistance with this article.

Paul Salveson is Bolton and bred and has a PhD in Lancashire dialect literature from the University of Salford. He is a visiting professor at the Universities of Huddersfield and Bolton. His books include a biography of Bolton dialect writer Allen Clarke and ‘Moorlands, Memories and Reflections’, a celebration of Allen Clarke’s moorland classic. For details see www.lancashireloominary.co.uk. His collection of short stories, set on the railways around Lancashire – ‘Last Train from Blackstock Junction’ - will be published in September.