Many of the images the Smile team are researching from the Tameside Reporter archives cover annual events over the years. One such event repeated at the beginning of the 1950s was of a man in armour on horseback.
He is usually featured as part of a parade which also shows a Pageant Queen with images of her being crowned by the Mayor or Mayoress on the steps of Ashton Town Hall.
Traditionally held in Ashton every year on Easter Monday, the Black Knight Pageant commemorated the death of Sir Ralph de Assheton, a supposedly brutal landowner who struck fear into the hearts of Ashtonians in the 15th century.
Many legends about his tyrannical behaviour have become folklore in the area.
The yearly pageant, which took place for roughly 200 years, paraded through Ashton town centre.
Sadly it appears the procession ended in 1954 although it enjoyed a brief revival during the late 1990s, although that revival itself did not last long.
The legend of the Black Knight is one that has interested people as they discover more about the history of Tameside.
A man dressed as the Black Knight for the annual pageant is captured here in the Reporter archive in the early 1950s
Sir Ralph de Assheton was a cruel tyrant, reported to have placed peasants inside barrels full of spikes before rolling them down the region’s hills.
It is said that he was shot dead one Easter Monday by a relative.
His death was celebrated by a custom called Riding the Black Lad, where his effigy was paraded around the town on horseback and had lumps of earth thrown at it and was then possibly burnt.
The first written account of the Riding of the Black Lad was not until 1795, although an earlier record, the Court Leet accounts for 1758, refers to the five shillings for making the Black Lad.
During the 19th century, the custom became rather chaotic, with rival Black Lads and processions that stopped for refreshment at local pubs.
It wasn’t until 1909 that it developed into the Black Knight Pageant, where a horseman dressed up as the knight and was accompanied by a Pageant Queen and other figures. The pageant was traditionally held on Easter Monday and attracted huge crowds.
The Black Knight was resurrected in 1995 to celebrate the opening of Ashton’s Arcades shopping centre.
Pictures from the past continue to be brought to life with the digitisation of the Reporter archive.
Many thousands of glass plates have now been digitised and are online to enjoy for the first time in decades.
You can find pictures on the Smile website at https://smiletameside.wordpress.com/
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