A 208-year-old tradition is set to make a return to Merseyside next week.
Neston Ladies Club Day will take place on Thursday, June 2, after having been postponed for the past two years owing to the pandemic. Organised by the Neston Female Society, the annual parade is the last one of its kind remaining in the UK, and the event continues to be a highly-anticipated date in the town’s diary.
Each year, members of the Female Society aged 16 and upwards, as well as more than 100 local children, parade through the streets of Neston in a celebration of the town's enduring sense of community. The society was founded in 1814, against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.
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The cost of the wars, coupled with the absence of a National Health Service, unemployment benefit and old age pensions, left a need for members of the community to establish a means of supporting each other. More than two centuries later, that sense of togetherness is still at the heart of what the Female Society does, and the annual Ladies Club Day is the perfect way to celebrate the spirit of the people of Neston.
Linda Williams, 62, who is a member of the Female Society, told the ECHO: “We have a motto which is ‘Bear Ye One Another’s Burdens’. Ladies Day is for all the women to get together and celebrate and show that we are still there together.
“We still look out for our members. We pay out maternity benefits and funeral benefits, and we just celebrate that we’re all together and that the community supports each other.”
Although it’s only women who take part in the Ladies Club Day procession, hundreds of people from Neston and beyond turn out to watch as society members and children make their way through the town. Participants get dressed up in their finery, and are led by the Pipe Band from the Scots Guards Association on a procession which ends at the Royal British Legion on Chester Road.
This will be the first parade since 2019, and Linda is delighted the people of Neston will be able to take to the streets once more.
She said: “We’re really looking forward to having the event back this year. Even though it's just the women that walk, the whole community comes together. We have members from around the country who walked when they were younger, and they come back to walk.
“Our oldest member is 91. She’s in a wheelchair now but she’ll still be taking part.”
This year, Ladies Club Day coincides with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and, to enhance the celebrations, the town centre will be closed to traffic throughout the afternoon. There will also be a programme of street entertainment for visitors to enjoy.
To learn more about Ladies Club Day, or to get a ticket to walk in the parade, click here.
