"I have a brochure of the 1902 Guild, when an archway was built over Garstang Road, near Ripon Street. My grandfather was on the committee organising it." (Joan Hardman)

Audrey Harrison still has a copy of the official programme for the ‘Nonconformist Sunday Schools Procession’ (in very good condition, I might add), and what a fascinating glimpse it gives us of the event. (The adverts. are no less evocative too.)

It lists a grand total of 36 bands accompanying the representatives of no less than 32 churches; many of both categories now, sadly, gone. The Methodists, of course, were still separated into Wesleyan, Primitive and United; there were 2 Salvation Army Corps, and both Shepherd Street Mission and Mill Hill Ragged School were very much a part of the local scene.

Included is a whole page of ‘RULES which must be strictly adhered to...’ Here are a few extracts: No.4 specifies that ‘All scholars to walk four abreast and one yard apart....’; No.6 tells us that ‘No motor lurry [sic], motor car, or mechanically-propelled vehicle will be allowed in the procession.’; No.11 indicates that ‘The scholars should be arranged according to size (as far as possible)’; and No.14, (Part 4) directs that ‘The vehicles to carry the aged or infirm....must be placed in the rear of each School’s section.’

We need to remember, of course, that in those days Sunday Schools included classes of adults as well as children.

The procession assembled in Winckley Square and the surrounding streets. When ‘Move off 2:30’ came it proceeded along Chapel Street, Fishergate, Church Street, Park Road (now part of the Ring Road), North Road, Garstang Road, Ripon Street, Plungington Road, Adelphi Street, Friargate, to the Market Place and there it dispersed.

Now, just take out your A-Z of Preston and estimate how far that was, especially for some of the youngsters, although Rule No.12 did state ‘No child under the age of SEVEN years to WALK in the procession.’!

Then use your map again to work out the distance some of the groups had to walk to reach Winckley Square before setting off on the procession route e.g. the Wesleyans and the Baptists from Ashton, or Ribbleton Avenue Wesleyans or Moor Park Wesleyans .......and then they had to walk all the way back after the dispersal. Our forebears were certainly tough cookies!!

Edith Nelson (Dorothy Smith’s mum) lived in the town centre, where the family had a wholesale bakery business and also a sweet shop. She wrote down some of her memories:

"Monday morning, from nine o’clock, it was the Roman Catholic Procession. Tuesday morning was the Church of England Procession (I was in that with St Paul’s Church) and the Nonconformists in the afternoon. On Wednesday it was the Trades Procession. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons I was in the Schools’ Pageant on Avenham Park. A wonderful, wonderful time; I’ll never forget it. Everybody so happy. We lived in the middle of it all. The fair on the market was exciting. Our shop won a 2^nd Prize. Got lots of tips for serving teas in our yard."

"I remember being shown a photograph of an auntie, as a schoolgirl, dressed as an Anglo-Saxon in the Children’s Pageant on Avenham Park."

"As a member of Moor Park Methodist School my father, Harold Sudell, played the part of Abraham Lincoln." (Sue Penrith)

"Due to the Second World War the 1942 Guild was cancelled, so I had to wait until 1952 to participate in my first one." (Enid Singleton)

"Although I was a ‘woolly-back’ from the West Lancashire Plain, we knew all about the Guild and, accordingly I was brought into Preston to stand on a very, very crowded Flag Market for the reading of the First Proclamation." (Roy Smith)

"My dad, George Penrith, helped to carry one of the banners whilst I sat on a small chair on a lorry – and was given a piece of newspaper to put over my head for if or when it rained!" (Chris Penrith)

"I recall Mrs Ball and Mrs Cooke painting the church banner; teenage girls holding ropes to steer the banner; helping a group of ladies, in the Parlour, to make flowers for the floral archway and practising walking with this archway before we took part in the procession; taking part in the Schools’ Festival and  going to a Guild ball for young people at the Public Hall." (Sue Penrith)

"I steered a banner for Barlow Street Methodist Church in the Free Churches Procession of Witness. The procession assembled in the streets near PNE’s ground – the area known as ‘The Bird Islands’ because all the streets there are named after birds. From there we processed through town." (Enid Singleton)

"I know it must have been a cold day. I was on a rope for the St Margaret’s, Ingol, banner and each time the procession stopped we all crowded round a following lorry and warmed our hands on the radiator!" (Dorothy Smith)

" I was at Moor Park Methodist Church then, and I was to play the part of Mary in the procession. Every Tuesday evening, week after week, I was taken to Lostock Hall to learn how to ride a donkey. Come the big day and Joseph had scarlet fever, so there was nobody to lead the donkey and I had to walk instead. All that effort gone to waste!" (Jean Reid)

"I was worshipping at Walton-le-Dale Methodist Church and we were invited to represent Methodism in Eastern Europe. The War was not long over so any encyclopaedias were very out of date and, of course, there was no internet. Eventually we discovered that Hungary, Romania and especially Poland had Methodist people. We also found pictures of their national costumes and made copies for the children to wear. Thankfully material was no longer rationed.

The great afternoon arrived and so did the horse and cart that was to be our ‘float’.

This was decorated in the national colours of the countries we represented, with handmade placards giving the message that Methodism was alive in Eastern

Europe. The children stood or sat on the cart, and I walked alongside to see that none of them fell off! We could hear brass bands away behind us and another somewhere in front. The streets were crowded: people clapping, joining in with the songs and hymns as the band played, calling out to friends in the procession. Older church members who could not walk the procession route rode on another decorated lorry with school benches to sit on. I hope they were well fastened down! (Kay Speight)

"My dentist, Mr Ward, was the Guild Mayor." (Dorothy Smith)