Joyce dons the clog iron

A SPRINGHEAD resident will follow in her late husband’s footsteps when she becomes the new Mayor of Austerlands.

Joyce Thornton, a retired data processing supervisor with North West Water, will take up the Saddleworth village’s customary clog iron chain of office at a mayor-making ceremony at the Red Lion Inn tomorrow.

Her late husband, Alan, was Mayor in 2004.

Joyce will become the 13th Mayor of this era, since the quirky tradition was reintroduced following the discovery of the ancient clog iron behind a beer barrel in the pub’s cellar in 1998. And she becomes only the second woman to be chosen for the honour.

The tradition is said to date back to the early 1950s when a general labourer at Austerlands Mill carried the title. The horseshoe shaped clog iron was introduced towards the end of the 1970s.

Joyce, a keen sportswoman in her youth who represented Oldham at tennis, has been a member of the Saddleworth Pedestrians Walking Club for 20 years.

She will lead up the first band at The Scouthead and Austerlands Contest on Whit-Friday.