Custom
Riding the Black Lad
A knight in black, in effigy.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Market town centre
- Legend from
- Tameside
- Tone
- Dramatic
The Black Knight rides again.
On Easter Monday Ashton paraded an effigy of a knight in black armour on horseback, then hung it on the market cross, shot at it and destroyed it. It is linked to Sir Ralph de Assheton, the 'Black Knight', remembered for cruelty, and said to have been shot at Ashton. Other accounts give a different origin.