The Bury New Road Festival, that happened on 15th July at the Broughton Hub, saw the best of Prestwich and Salford with talks, music, verse and more…
The day kicked off with the launch of the North Manchester Yiddish Dictionary, compiled by the Alevai Jewish women’s group, and accompanied by a short Yiddish flavoured show by local entertainer, wit and ‘enthusiastic non-expert’, Steven Pearlman, who gave a bit a bit of the history of the language and asked non-Jewish (and Jewish) people in the audience to guess what some of the guttural-sounding words mean, ably assisted by the Human Yiddish Dictionary for the day, Denise Librae.
After some family recollections and a musical tribute to his dad’s Yiddish-laden act, Steven transformed himself into comedian, Charlie Klutz, who had some shocking Yiddish jokes. The worst? What’s the hottest country in the world? Shvitzaland (translation via the Yiddish Dictionary).
The show ended with a song in Yiddish by Theodore Bikel, with the audience invited to singalong with lines like ‘Koyft mayne beygelach, Frishinke beygelach, Nu koyftshe gicher, koyft, Ich darf does geld…’ Feet were tapping and tongues were twisted…
From the ridiculous to the sublime, as poet John Darwin revealed the dark underbelly of Prestwich, way removed from the hyped ‘new Didsbury’…No, no, no; here we are Cuckoo and ‘In estate agents’ bluster it isn’t made clear, They jump from bridges round here…’
Prestwich, ‘now swamped by young achievers in their child seat 4 by 4s‘ and the New Road ‘an early morning home for grounded pigeons and magpies picking at discarded chips’…
Meanwhile, down in the foyer, people were fascinated by the incredible collection of, well, everything, brought by local historian and collector Craig Brisbane. There were old crutches from Prestwich Hospital, albums full of postcards, photos, beer mats and more, plus all sorts of ancient arrow heads, musket balls and even a canon ball from the English Civil War. There were trays full of vintage buckles, clay pipes and more, plus big items like maps, Broughton fire dogs and an old iron BURY sign…everyone agreed that they could spend weeks just rummaging through the artefacts.
Upstairs there were also day-long exhibitions – the photography of Paul Jones, including one of Atomic Kitten Jenny Frost’s first model shots outside St Paul’s Church on Moor Lane, models at the 80s circus in St Mary’s Park, an incredible shot from Rainsough Cemetery showing the old Agecroft power station towers and colliery, and band and model shoots done in Paul’s flat in the Grade 2 listed house on Bury New Road which was recently demolished.
Bury New Road project artist, Louise Garman, showed a selection of her community and business portraits, plus some of her own lockdown sketches and silkscreens…
Also exhibited was work by The Fed Mental Wellbeing Group, facilitated by Louise, based on artistic reactions to Prestwich Precinct…As part of this process, a Prestwich Palette, was created featuring colours taken from the Precinct and Longfield Centre, which were the used to create abstract images re-imagined from the shapes of the environment.
Downstairs, the Manchester District Music Archive scanned photos that had been brought in for the project, and the Salford Local History Group collected people’s oral histories of the sights, sounds and faces of the area. Three local Salford councillors, John Warmisham, Jim King and Maria Brabiner, also gave their accounts of bygone Bury New Road days.
Paul Kelly, a former miner and co-founder of the Irwell Valley Mining Group, gave a really popular talk on the Big Tunnels Under Bury New Road, revealing the huge railway tunnels that used to take miners to the coalface, while recounting all the areas the Agecroft pit had trashed through subsidence…
Paul’s talk was followed by sounds from the five-piece Strummalongs, with banjos, guitars, sax and tambourine accompanying Bernie Shaw’s vocals on new ace versions of favourites like Dirty Old Town, Leaning On A Lamppost, Buddy Can You Spare Me A Dime and Yellow Bird, plus a self-penned song about Salford City…
For those who were working, after 5pm, there was a repeat of the Yiddish Dictionary show and John Darwin’s verse. Around three hundred people attended the Festival, loads of contacts were made and the Bury New Road archive was enhanced no end…
For more details on all of those who featured in the festival see previous Bury New Road articles…
The North Manchester Yiddish Dictionary – see here.
On the exhibition of abstract paintings by the Mental Wellbeing Group at The Fed – see here
Interview with Paul Kelly and Big Tunnels Under Bury New Road – see here.
John Darwin interview – see here
The Strummalongs interview – see here
Paul Jones interview – see here
Craig Brisbane interview – see here
