The Saddleworth Beer Walk: some fifteen hundred people walking some eleven miles over about six hours, stopping to drink a can of beer at each of ten pubs. (This event – 2008’s was the 35th – follows the day after the long-established Saddleworth Whit Friday Band Contests.) Please note, to save misunderstandings, that I have nothing whatsoever to do with running the Beer Walk:  I’m not an organiser, not a member of the Round Table, not a source of information or registration forms. I’m just one of those thousand-odd (thousand, odd?) walkers. Click here for the official Beerwalk site.

Most walkers wear fancy dress, and each team raises money for its favoured charity.
 
 

What we’ve done over the years:

	2008: Antony Gormless, Another Plaice	2008: Plaice photos (new page)
2007: It’s a Scream	2007: Scream photos (new page)	2005: Christo for Christie’s
Wrap photos (new page)	2003: Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys	2002: Laughing Cavaliers
Cavalier photos	2001: Lowry that Walked	Lowry photos
2000: Monet’s water lilies	water-lily photos	1999: Load of Pollocks
Pollock photos	Pollock show	1998: Van Gogh & sunflowers
sunflower photos	1997: Surfing the net	surfer photos
1996: Absent-minded profs	prof photos	Fundraising

In 2008 we were inspired by Antony Gormley’s wonderful Another Place  on Crosby Beach. We, however, were "Antony Gormless’s Another Plaice". Our slogans were just as groanworthy, or else plain rude: Whale Meat Again;  Life’s a Beach;  I Could’ve Been the Angel of the North;  Not waving or drowning;  Sand where the sun don't shine, etc. Our statuesque (ahem), boiler-suited bodies were also decorated with mussel shells, bird droppings, real seaweed, a seagull. The ‘sea’ – a large blue tarpaulin – rose and fell around us at each performance, bubbles materialised, and a ‘foghorn’ sounded. We got the usual mixture of appreciative smiles (thank you) and blank incomprehension (definitely the majority, especially when we were just walking along without the ‘sea’); suggestions as to what we might be included ‘whales’ and ‘an environmental disaster’. But there were also walkers who didn't get it at first and then suddenly realised – to their and our delight – that they’d seen the figures on Crosby Sands and now knew what we were. I see that Antony Gormley, according to the biography here, is just one week older than me, grew up in the same part of London, and overlapped with me at university. After this latest crime against Art, it’s probably just as well that we’re now unlikely to meet.

After a fortnight’s glorious weather, Saturday was cold, grey and drizzly, though a watery sun came out just as we were climbing up to the Church Inn, to remind us just how beautiful Saddleworth can be. And it was Cup Final day. Plaice-men were Tom Campbell and Helen Sweet (and Lulu), Jackie Barrow, Peter Durbin, David, Alison and Mary Brittle, Pat Fraser, Bill Thomas, David Denison and Elizabeth (Biz) Price, with Neil Barrow as roadie and Simone Pika as guest photographer.

Photos: click here for album (opens in new tab or page; pictures by Simone Pika, Helen Sweet, Steve Sankey, Neil Barrow, David Denison). [last updated 2/6/08 21:21 ]

Videos: click here for a YouTube video with us at the start (thanks to Steve Sankey), and here for a slideshow (woof!).

[Good photos always appreciated for use on this page (with acknowledgement, of course): please email them to David Denison.]

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In 2007 it was Art again, in fact, It’s a Scream . We were dressed in black, each wearing a mask with its own hands and sleeves. There was a backdrop to perform a tableau against, not entirely dissimilar to Munch’s effort. But much bigger. After a hesitant start, we decided the tableaux shouldn’t be silent, and several of us developed a worrying fondness for getting into that slightly kinked posture and screaming as loud as we could, whether in ones, twos or threes. (After all, Munch painted the same single figure several times. We just put them all in the same picture.) We wore the usual appalling puns on our backs: The Scream of Munch-ester, I Can’t Beer It, Not Only But Oslo, and so on. The masks were a brilliant visual effort (mainly by Elizabeth Price) – from the outside, that is. From the inside it was a little tricky to see where we were going. I think I trampled several small children underfoot. Stumblers and walkers were Alison, David and Mary Brittle, Martin Loughlin, Chris, Frances and Beth Foley, Nick Rees, Pam Foley and Ellen Foley-Williams, Jackie Barrow, Tom Campbell, Helen Sweet (and Lulu), Elizabeth Price, Guillaume Rome and David Denison. David Johnson was unable to take part because of illness. Neil Barrow was our stalwart roadie. After a horrible week the weather was perfect throughout, the crowds were generous with coins – buckets and collecting tins filled up noticeably quickly – the organisers were generous with beer tokens and, this year, cans of beer (we didn’t attempt our full allocation), and most of us finished a lovely walk in the setting sun.

Photos: click here for album (pictures by Helen, Frances and Neil and Fergus Wilde).

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In 2006 for various reasons most of us didn’t enter (e.g. DD was away in France).

In 2005 we returned to Art – in the footsteps of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who wrap big things like the Reichstag , the Pont-Neuf, a stretch of coastline, ... Well, we went as The Wrappers (alternatively, Christo for Christie’s). We were each individually wrapped (Martin in the only surviving Pollock suit). We performed a rap: Can’t Touch This, suddenly changing to Let’s Wrap This, upon which we would swoop on people in the crowd and wrap them. We left the Ammon Wrigley statue in Uppermill and the Ramsden memorial in Dobcross in a state of wrapture (see photos below), which they were still enjoying at the end of the day. We had a giant tarpaulin for wrapping – and trapping – any cars that were foolish enough to get stuck in the procession, and on one occasion, a police scooterist. The weather was showery at first but very wet indeed around Diggle – we got drenched. The afternoon of the Beer Walk was also when Manchester United were losing to Arsenal in the Cup Final, so all in all, it was surprising how many people turned out to watch the Beer Walk. Those who ‘got’ our theme – a select few? – were really appreciative. The team was Chris and Frances Foley, Martin Loughlin, Jackie Barrow, Peter Durbin, Helen Sweet, Tom Campbell, Elizabeth Price, David and Rosie Denison, and Rachael Mallalieu.

Photos mainly by Helen Sweet, plus some of David’s: click here for album.

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In 2004 our group of friends sat it out and watched.

In 2003 we took a break from Art. We had monkey masks and tails, French berets, cheese cartons, and white flags. What were we? Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys. (Don’t ask. Or try the nearly 9000 hits on Google.) I doubt that more than a handful of spectators realised what we were. Still, it was fun and easy to do, the weather was great, and we collected a lot of coins. Only problems were my tail, which had a life of its own and seemed to like goosing other walkers, and my mask, which made one little spectator burst into tears. CESMs were Helen and Michael Sweet, Jackie Barrow, Chris and Frances Foley, David, Alice and Rosie Denison, Elizabeth Price, Jeremy Gatti, David, Alison and Sarah Brittle, Laura Pickett, Katie Wild, and Rebecca ‘Five-vodkas’ Wallis. Neil Barrow and Tom Campbell were in support.

Photos welcome. Here’s one: (David D, Frances, David B, Helen).

In 2002 we were The Laughing Cavaliers. We were all dressed in black, with cuffs, ruff and a hat, moustache and goatee beard, and we each carried our own picture frame. Tom Campbell was The Laughing Cavalier, Alice Denison was The Laughing Chandelier, Rosie Denison was The Girlie Cavalier, Frances Foley was The Mosha Cavalier, Helen Sweet was The Naff Cavalier (with fluffy dice and a nodding dog), Peter Durbin was The Cabbie Cavalier, Nigel Clarke was The Clapped-Out Cavalier, complete with rusty exhaust pipe, Jackie Barrow was The Cavalier GTi (with wing mirrors on her frame and shiny exhaust pipes behind), Susan Clarke was The Cavalier PMT, Jeremy Gatti was The Grimacing Cavalier, Rebecca Wilcox was The Reluctant Cavalier, Beth Foley was The Laughing Vectra, Chris Foley was The "One-Careful-Lady-Owner" Cavalier, Elizabeth (Biz) Price was The "We-Are-Not-Amused" Cavalier, David Denison was The Turner Prize Cavalier (thanks to Tom, with light at the top of his frame which went on and off, on and off, ...), Martin Loughlin was The "Only-Here-For-The-Beer" Cavalier, John Murphy was a very camp – and pink be-tighted – "Glad-To-Be-Gay" Cavalier, best printable line: "Give us some money or I’ll criticise your curtains!". Tom worked the crowd, and this year, for a change, we had a chance to laugh at the onlookers – surprisingly easy to the accompaniment of the Laughing Policeman. The rain held off till Delph, when we got soaked, but then it cleared up again. Some of our hats had rather lost their pizzazz, though. There was brilliant support from Neil Barrow (roadie) and Alison and David Brittle (post-match catering).

First photo: (Chris, Biz, Helen, Nigel, Frances and John – from the Oldham Evening Chronicle, miscaptioned). Some of Neil Barrow’s photos: in our garden, Naff, GTi and PMT, Mosha and taxi, waiting to laugh?, glad to be gay, laughing chandelier with grimacing boyfriend, non-laughing policeman in Diggle, Vikings at a bus-stop (Freya Barrow and friends).

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In 2001 we were The Lowry that Walked[Going to the Match ©The Lowry Estate, Carol Ann Lowry]. Kitted out in dour 1930s clothes, with white faces and red-rimmed eyes, we took our props round with us: pram, baby Richard, iron railings, telegraph pole, lamp-post, factory chimneys, cloud. At several stops in each village we created what you might call a stereotypical L. S. Lowry tableau out of various team members: Tom Campbell, Helen and Mike Sweet, Hannah Windeatt, Jackie Barrow, Peter Durbin, Martin Loughlin, Chris, Beth and Frances Foley, David and Alison Brittle, Elizabeth Price, David, Alice and Rosie Denison, Rebecca Wilcox, and the dogs Jess and Sally. Tom sounded his deafening ‘factory hooter’ and announced the painting, while we walked slowly on stage and froze, careful to keep the props vertical and the figures slanting. When everything went smoothly, one of the factory chimneys started to belch thick (and rather smelly) smoke, and a self-raining umbrella provided what every Salford street scene needs. (Thanks again, Tom.) Another blast of the hooter and we unfroze. People seemed to appreciate it a lot and were very generous in their contributions. In fact the real rain mostly held off, despite some early showers and a dire forecast, and though the more elegant members of the team got chilly, those of us in tweed suits weren’t complaining. When we returned to the Churchill playing fields we found we’d won 1st Prize: a fine commemorative plate and some terrible beer.

First photos, rather grainy. (And anyway none of the pictures really show us in action.) Rehearsing in our garden, before start – entirely the wrong setting for Lowry: matchstick men aslant, now with smoking chimney, David B with the self-raining umbrella, grim, pasty faces (Chris, Elizabeth, Tom, Jackie, Martin). On the road: David D and Martin, uphill to Dobcross. Individuals by the wayside: David D, Jackie and ‘baby Richard’. Stripped-down versions of three of Iain Windeatt’s great pictures: on the march, Tom shouting, chimney smoking. And finally, We won! (at end, with trophy – picture taken by Gordon Beverley’s father – thank you, and many thanks to Mandy Thackray for sending us the first photos we saw.)

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In 2000 we were Monet’s Water Lilies (a.k.a. A Spray of Lilies / French Impressionists / Piss Artists: we never quite agreed on a group name). A number of lilies walked the route: Elizabeth Price and Chris Foley (‘Gilded Lily’), Helen Sweet and Jackie Barrow (‘Tiger Lily’), Peter Durbin and Anthony Ogus (‘Dennis Lily’, the cricketer), Alice Denison and Beth Foley (‘Lily the Pink’), Helen Owens (‘Day Lily’), David Brittle (‘Lily-bullero’), Martin Loughlin and David Denison (‘picca-lily’, complete with vegetables, and pickled), Rosie Denison and Frances Foley (‘Lily-putian = pocket-Monet’), all suitably costumed and petalled. Mike Sweet was a Weeping Willow, and Tom Campbell was ‘Frog One’. We were plastered (!) with appalling puns: We’re only in it for the Monet, Give us your Monet, We’re Impressionists, We’ve gone completely doo-lily [for local connoisseurs, that one], and so on. Fiona Owens came along to help, and Neil Barrow was our stalwart one-man support team, ferrying water by car as needed. Where there was a big crowd – or even just a group of friends – we performed our Art.

A very large blue tarpaulin was our pond, complete with green lily-pads, frogs and strategically engineered slits. Five or six ‘lilies’ at a time wore contraptions of small pipes coming up around their heads. They got themselves hooked up by lengths of hosepipe to our portable pump and 25-litre water tank, poked their heads through the tarpaulin, had their lily petals replaced over their heads by the remaining members of the team, and knelt down. The willow spread his branches. Then, after some patter from the Artiste himself, Frog One, the pièce de resistance was two fine sprays of water from each lily and willow and finally a third jet shooting to an impressive height. We sometimes got soaked, the crowd had the frisson of nearly but not really getting sprayed – not unwelcome on a hot day – and we got a great reaction each time: a triumph for Tom’s engineering skills. No prizes for us from the organisers this time, but who cares? The weather was perfect, and after we’d slogged up Lark Hill – we confess that for that stint alone, the pump trolley travelled by car – the sunlit evening view towards Dobcross and Uppermill and a low full moon was just stunning. We made it to the finish, tired and happy. Most of our lily petals, though, looked extremely tired (if not emotional). Some of Neil Barrow’s photos below:

lilies, getting ready, preparing Frog One, try-out, it works!, Uppermill, Frog One drums up business, Dobcross, Delph, and piping up, late spurt at Diggle.

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In 1999 our team consisted of Jackie Barrow and Peter Durbin, Martin Loughlin and Chris and Frances Foley, Anthony Ogus, John Murphy, André Knoerchen and Quentin de Bottini, Helen and Michael Sweet and Tom Campbell, David Brittle, and Elizabeth Price and David, Alice and Rosie Denison. [Eyes of Heat scanned by Mark Harden.]
As intended, everyone thought we were A load of Pollocks(apart from the Chron, who got us wrong again). Continuing our commitment to serious Art History – see below – not to mention Performance Art, our team starred Tom as Jackson P and the rest of us as Art. Our street theatre efforts showed Tom off to excellent effect and allowed spectators – for £1 – to work out their artistic and/or aggressive tendencies with squeezy bottles of paint.  We had started off in white boiler-suits artistically pre-dripped; by the end of the walk we were well and truly Pollocked. At our first stop Jackson himself went literally over the top in his painting:  we hope no one suffered permanent ill effects. One couple hailed two of us in the street at around 9pm, as we were making our way to the finish, to show off a streak of bright yellow paint across the top of her head acquired some 5 hours previously. But rather than complaining, they surprised us by cheerfully and generously putting money in the collecting box. (An earlier instance of spectator sportingness was having a heavy collecting box returned to us at Diggle after we had unwittingly left it behind at Delph. Thanks again for that.) And then the organisers surprised us by giving us a commemorative plate for ‘Best Fancy Dress, 2nd Place’. Some of Neil Barrow’s photos below:

getting ready, group photo, the Beer Walk goes through Uppermill, "lie back and think of your country", aftermath, leaving the scene, a walk in the country, drinking at Diggle, instructing the artists, getting squirted.

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In 1998 a bunch of friends, including on the day Martin Loughlin and Beth and Frances Foley, Jackie Barrow and Peter Durbin, Michael Sweet, Alison Brittle, and David and Rosie Denison, entered for the Beer Walk as van Gogh and the sunflowers (or as Monday’s Oldham Evening Chronicle had it, ‘Van Gough and his Sunflowers’): a very plausible Vincent van Gogh (Martin in appropriate clothing and the apparent aftermath of an auricular accident), eight walking sunflowers (the rest of us – four adult blossoms and four juvenile ones), and a contraption which we could (usually) unfold into a large picture frame for parading through each village en route. Amazingly, we won 2nd prize.   Gruesome photos:

in my garden:
on the road:

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surfers + mouse, surfers + dog, surfing up a hill, and outside a pub.

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before starting, Martin, Neil, David, Jackie, Helen.

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We’re collecting for Christie’s, the appeal fund of the Christie Hospital, the region’s major cancer treatment and research centre.

Most of us have sponsorship and we brandish collecting boxes on the walk itself. In 1996 we raised £139, in 1997 £95 + sponsorship, in 1998 ??. Total raised in 1999 was £601: £390 sponsorship + £211 collected on the day, including £18 raised by Freya Barrow and friends (38 Kb). (NB. Freya’s team in 2000 (37 Kb).) In 2000 the amount we raised was £807: £639 sponsorship plus £168 cash collected on the walk. In 2001 we raised £702: sponsorship was £478, the collecting boxes and bucket raised £224, and The Lowry Centre kindly donated a free family pass to ArtWorks, which we have passed on to the Christie’s fundraisers. In 2002 we raised rather less: £189 on the walk and £80 or so sponsorship. 2003: I never found out. 2005: £107.95 on the walk, plus over £200 sponsorship. 2007: £208 on the walk, plus £137 sponsorship. 2008: £135 on the walk, plus £228 sponsorship. Maybe a few readers of this web page will add some more to the cash raised.

If you want to give money to a very good cause, please send a contribution direct to the Christie Hospital:

Appeals Office
Christie Hospital NHS Trust
Wilmslow Road
Withington
Manchester
M20 4BX

Let us know if you have, and whether you saw us or read this.  Thanks.
David Denison

My e-mail address is david.denison@manchester.ac.uk.
This page first created in a hurry 23 May 1997 on a different fileserver, last updated 2 June 2008.
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official Beerwalk site
Saddleworth site
Bob Hindley’s Whit Friday brass band contest site

Now back to the serious stuff ...

David Denison’s home page

Elizabeth Price, ceramic sculptures