Late Victorian Burley Five

But there was also a vigorous and entertaining social life associated with the church. An annual Whit Monday procession involved upwards of 800 children walking from the school playground to the Village where they sang, before proceeding to the vicarage lawn for more singing, prayers and then an enormous meal followed by games on Mr Thorpe's field.

In one half-hour, after the 1889 procession, the children consumed 1,300 buns, 10 stones of plum cake, 8 lb of tea, 60 lb of sugar and 30 quarts of milk: not to mention the tarts and cakes for 120 teachers and 'elder scholars'. And the amusements offered by the Church Institute in the same year included not merely concerts and lectures, but also, intriguingly, the singing of Chinese and Japanese songs by boys in costume.

Report of the girls' club in the Burley Parish Magazine for July 1899

This excellent society had a brilliant manifestation on Saturday 17th June when a Fete Champetre - no - a Cafe Chantant was held in the Vicarage garden. A goodly company assembled and passed the time agreeably in conversation, listening to music and in consuming refreshments with avidity. The members of the club were gracefully conspicuous by saffron tinted sashes, and were indefatigable in dispensing hospitality to their guests. To secure the function from the profane eyes of the vulgar, the railings were swathed in a snowy but opaque material known as harden.

To guard the Assembly from the possible invasion of young hooligans, a powerful body of police were in array. The weather was the perfection of summer, warm and cloudless, with a gentle breeze just sufficient to circulate the scent of the regalias, that else would have wandered idly to the sky.

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