Saddleworth Independent

“AT THE beginning, we had a child with cerebral palsy. It had taken some time for her to have the confidence to go on a ride, until one day she slid off the pony. She was crying, and we sorted her out.  
“We took her back to mum straight away – and she went, ‘That’s incredible!’” 
After nine years of leading the Saddleworth Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA), the young girl who slid off her horse remains one of Alison Pickering’s strongest memories.
The charity group had only been going f...

THE TIME has come for the children of Saddleworth to lace up and line up, with registration for the Saddleworth Village Olympics now open for 2026.

Now in its 41st year, the Village Olympics will welcome more than a thousand young athletes across twenty different sporting events, open for those between seven- and 14-years old.

IT WAS the sounds of summer on Friday (29 May) as hundreds of band players descended upon Saddleworth for this year’s Whit Friday celebrations.
In all, 154 bands from the UK and abroad were heard trooping through the streets last week, each pausing to perform at 11 villages along the way: Delph; Denshaw; Diggle; Dobcross; Friezland; Greenfield; Grotton; Lees and Springhead; Lydgate; Scouthead and Austerlands; and Uppermill.
All were competing for the top prizes across both the local and Central...