Exhibition Takes a Look at Tameside at Leisure

Date Released - 27/06/2023

FROM the wakes and Whit walks to today’s wider horizons, “Tameside at Leisure”, the new exhibition at Portland Basin Museum, explores the many ways the borough’s residents spend their spare time – now and in the past.

Holidays once meant at least a day out in Blackpool, and the first thing to greet you as enter the Ashton building is a display about the seaside. There’s also a look at trips to places like Southport, and Manchester’s much-missed Belle Vue Zoo Park.

Sport features prominently with items from Hyde Seal, world water polo champions at the start of the 20th century, plus football and cricket memorabilia.

Other objects relate to the Whit walks and brass band contests as well as dance troupes such as the Milltown Cloggies and Mossley Morris Men.

The great outdoors is featured, with its opportunities for gardening, walking and so many other activities, and there are displays about uniformed youth organisations as well as a section about the Manchester Regiment’s volunteer battalions.

Several hobbies such as photography, painting, cooking and reading are also included.

All the displays are complemented by photographs from the Tameside Local Studies and Archives collection.

Cllr Sangita Patel, Tameside Council’s assistant executive member for culture and heritage, said: “What could be more appropriate for the summer and holiday season than an exhibition about the many ways the people of Tameside have spent their leisure time?

“The museum has done a splendid job in putting together the exhibition, which shows not only how our leisure pursuits have changed over the years but also how they have remained the same. Things like gardening or a day at the seaside are still as popular as ever.

“If you have some leisure time this summer, it’s well worth considering a visit to see ‘Tameside at Leisure’ at Portland Basin Museum.”

“Tameside at Leisure” opens on Saturday, July 15, and continues until March 17, 2024. Portland Basin Museum, Ashton, is open Tuesday to Sunday (10am to 4pm). Admission is free. For more information visit www.intameside.co.uk