Christmas trees. Lights. Pubs and cafes. A bit of nostalgia.

Suddenly the village is full of Christmas trees. Every shop and every place that used to be a shop (too many of them!) and is now a house, every pub and every place that used to be a pub and is now a set of offices for rent has a small tree pinned to the wall on the upper level. Some are already lit up. Others wait to be decorated.

 

For the last I'm-not-sure-how-many years, this installation of trees has taken place at the end of November, waiting for the "Light up Delph" ceremony in early December. Usually this involves crowds of people filling the village centre, waiting for the a-a-a-h-h!! moment when everything is switched on. Traffic is stopped, buses that go through the village are diverted and the place belongs briefly to people with children, seeking magic. And it doesn't really matter if it rains - it usually does. And to finish things, fireworks are set off!

 

I don't think it's going to happen like that this year but slowly, slowly the decorations are going up, the lights are being switched on and Christmas of sorts is going to happen.

 

"Light up Delph" is one of those occasions, like the Whit Friday Band Contest (which didn't happen either this year) that give the village centre pubs a boost. No boost this year. When we first moved to Delph, a rather frightening 45 or so years ago, there were at least six drinking establishments in the village: the White Lion, the Rose and Crown, the Swan, the Band Club, the Bull, the Old Bell, and on the edge, the Cricket and Bowling Club. I was about to comment on the demise of many of these but it's not actually true. Some may have reduced hours but only one, the Rose and Crown, has in fact changed into a set of offices for rent. And what used to be an actual bank has turned into The Bank, a supposedly trendy wine bar. Whether they all, or indeed any of them, will survive into 2021 is a different story.

 

What used to be Edna's Cafe has now become Crumbles. Back in March, when we returned from Spain just in time not to be locked down there in a small flat, Edna's Cafe was closed "for bereavement". And I never discovered whether it was frail-looking Edna heself, a lady I used to chat to as she sunned herself outside the cafe, or Edna's partner/husband(?), a gentleman who regaled me with stories of his travels to Spain as some kind of salesman, who had passed away. Suddenly we were restricted as to how many people at a time could go into the co-op store and somehow gossip about Edna's Cafe got lost along the way.

 

The cafe serves as a community craft shop as well. A group of local artists meet there to paint. Other people make items to sell in the shop. I investigated joining in but my to-and-fro between here and Galicia life style got in the way, Maybe some time in the future when/if life gets back to normal.

 

Anyway, the cafe/craft shop remained closed. Life there, like elsewhere, was put on hold. And then, when we were able to a limited number of things once again, it reopened as "Crumbles", with an old treadle sewing machine on display and what look like dressmakers' dummies bedecked with home-made aprons for decoration in the side windows. The front craft-shop area remained the same-old same-old. Just as they were getting going nicely Greater Manchester went into renewed restrictions. Then came "tiers" and Greater Manchester was in tier 3. And finally there was national lockdown mark 2.

 

And yet, they seem to keep going with take-aways; take-away bread to order, take-away cakes and pies, take-away coffees and teas. And one morning I came across a group of people, nodding acquaintances of mine, sitting, socially distanced after a fashion, on the wall opposite the side entrance to the cafe, eating sausage and bacon sandwiches and drinking cups of coffee. Take-away breakfast! They said they do this regularly, keeping a local place going. And I hear of other similar places here and there over the collection of villages that make up Saddleworth.

 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!