Preston’s love of chasing eggs down the Avenham Park slopes and the mother of all parties every 20 years for the Guild may receive a special heritage status.
Blog Preston can reveal Town Hall chiefs have tabled a bid for Preston Guild and Preston Egg Rolling to be cherished as part of the UK’s UNESCO Living Heritage.
It aims to record traditions which happen across the country so they can be ‘valued, shared and protected’.
Read more: Preston keeps powder dry over UK City of Culture 2029 bid
More than 800 expressions of interest have been submitted with the egg rolling and Guild among them.
To qualify an event or tradition must be a ‘community-driven cultural practice passed down through generations and continues to be actively practised today’.
Chief executive of Preston City Council, Adrian Phillips, said: “We are incredibly proud to submit Preston Guild and Preston Egg Rolling to the UK’s UNESCO Living Heritage inventories. These traditions are deeply rooted in our city’s history and demonstrates its living heritage.
“By putting these events forward, we are recognising their importance to Preston’s cultural identity and reaffirming our commitment to protecting and celebrating them for years to come.”
No timescale is given for when the events may be accepted for their special status – but it is understood it takes around four to six months.
What is Preston Guild?
Dating back to 1179 the celebration of the city’s first Royal charter is a 12-month celebration with civic ceremonies, processions and a huge festival in the September of the Guild year.
It is one of Britain’s oldest and rarest civic traditions, and marks when King Henry II granted the royal charter and there are eyewitness accounts dating back to 1682 and more than 500 years of records attached to the Guild.
Since 1542 the Guild has been staged every 20 years and the city council is in the process of recruiting for a Guild Officer to oversee the 2032 celebrations and money has been earmarked to ensure the tradition survives into whatever new super council replaces the city council when it is abolished in 2028.
Roll those eggs
Chasing eggs, originally hard boiled and now chocolate, down the slopes of Avenham and Miller Park has been going on since 1867. This was known as ‘pace egging’ due to the practice of dying and using onion skins.
More than 30,000 people attended this year’s sunkissed egg rolling event which continues to the present day in much the same format.
The practice is to represent the rolling away of Jesus’ tomb in the Easter story.
This year’s egg rolling saw the animal rights charity PETA urge Prestonians to roll potatoes instead of eggs – hard boiled or chocolate – a call which was rejected and met with scorn by those in the city.
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