Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing Festival is one of only a few instances of this singular English custom still being celebrated annually. Rushbearing itself dates back several centuries to the time when church floors consisted of little more than stone flags or beaten earth and rushes were used as a winter covering. Each year, in late summer, the old and rotten rushes were cleared out and new ones taken to the churches in carts. Human nature being what it is, this annual traditional custom developed i