Custom survived: Oxford Ascension Day Beating the Bounds

There are a large number of customs on Ascension Day that to see them all would need a considerable number of years. A few years ago I decided to sample the Oxford beating of the bounds on the way to the Bisley Ascension Day well dressing.

Oxford has a long history of recorded beating of the bounds. Brand’s Popular antiquities of 1849 records that:

“At Oxford the little crosses cut in the stones of buildings to denote the division of the parishes are whitened with chalk. Great numbers of boys, with peeled willow rods in their hands, accompany the minister in the procession.”

Fast forward to the 21st century and delightfully little has changed – the willow rods, the marks, the chalk, all except perhaps the great numbers of boys. I turned up at St. Michael at the Northgate where a large number of people were assembling and willow rods were being given out. I tried to avoid getting one myself as I feared it might get in the way of the photography.

Beating the boundaries was done by many parishes and still is. Between 1598 and 1834, Poor Laws made it that the care of the poor was parish’s responsibility and as such it was important to ensure that they knew the boundaries so that those who might turn up to ask for alms were legitimately on the parish’s land. Oxford has one of the more interesting boundary beatings – two churches go out on the same day, one early the morning the other later on, presumably not to mark at the same time but occasionally they do to mock indignance no doubt. Oxford is also notable also weaving in and out of some rather unusual locations.

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The vicar arrived with chalk in hand and considerable enthusiasm and seeing that we all had wands in hand with his two cross bearers took us off to beat the bounds. It wasnt long before we found our first hit and taking about a piece of chalk he wrote upon a cross marked on the wall between the arms the letter SMNG and the date beneath. Once he had done so he said ‘whack it’ and the wands raised in hand ceremonially hit the mark and then we were off.

I’ve been in some strange places recording calendar customs but I think the lingerie section of Zara must be one of the most bizarre. Here the group stood cross bearers between the bras as the vicar asked for the manager. However, this was not some ask to return some unwanted items but to gain access to a storeroom where bizarrely a mark was held. Clearly himself bemused by the location he dutifully marked it, we whacked it and off we went.

On our perambulations, walls featured greatly some marks low down some high up – making it very clear why we needed the long wands. At one point the vicar disappeared behind some foliage to mark and we just noted it. At the site of the Oxford Martyrs a moment of reflection was needed before chalk in hand and for the lack of an actual mark in an act which would be considered vandalism if anyone else, the road sign was chalked and we again whacked especially enthusiastically by a little girl looking considerably surprised she got away with it it seemed!

Next we entered the grounds of Brasenose college where our next mark was to be found. Here it was clear that the St. Mary the Virgin beaters had beaten us to it as they had left their mark too as the college was the boundary of both. Here the beaters were treated with a break and something called Ivy beer which I politely declined…indeed I quickly check my phone and realised I need to leave to attend the Bisley ascension day well dressing and vowed to return another time to experience the rest of the boundary walk.

Custom revived: Chester Mystery Plays

“The Aldermen and stewards of every society and company draw yourselves to your said several companies according to Ancient Custom and so to appear with your said several Companies every man as you are Called upon pain that shall fall thereon”

 

In the busy streets of Chester this cry might not be as effective as it was in the mediaeval streets in which the Mystery plays were originally performed. Such dramas were common across Europe since the 10th century in some cases and by the late 12th century they were performed outside churches and unlike much of the church services would be spoken in the vernacular language – in Chester that would be English – this meant it was far more accessible and easier way for the populace to learn the biblical stories in the Old and New Testaments. 

The introduction in 1264  of the Feast of Corpus christi appeared to be a catalyst for the mystery play expansion; combined with an expansion of towns and cities and associated guilds who were often responsible for it. The skilled labourers in such communities would common together to build stages and props for the plays and as such they become increasingly sophisticated. By this time the Mysteries were fully developed with a tableau of biblical scenes. One of the first recorded was a biblical history of salvation performed in York by 1394 and as commercial trade benefited from the visitors came to see the play other towns such as Chester adopted them. 

No Play days

However, the Reformation was to slowly stop the plays. They were banned nationally in the 16th century and interestingly, Chester was the last to concede. In 1562 the cathedral still paid for the stage and beer; 1568 a play cycle was performed and again 1572 which was despite the protest by an Evangelical minister and again were performed in 1575. The later resulted in the Mayor being called the Star Chamber in London to answer to why but he escaped prosecution. A record of play for the 4th June 1600 suggests it dragged on further before the protestant forces won. 

Mystery revealed

Despite the toleration act and the increasing acceptance of what had been seen as Popish practises; the Chester Mystery plays were not revived until 1951 for the Festival of Britain. Since then they have been performed every  five years.

I attended in 2001 and soon found the performers in the stage in front of the Town Hall. It was simple but effective set up with a backdrop of the cityscape painted on the back high above it in a raised stage was God beneath a rainbow. I was considerably impressed with how this simple set up was so effective and loud. A large crowd begun to gather and listen carefully. It was an interactive performance with the cast quick to call out to the audience and solicit appropriate responses.

Since then the Chester Mystery plays have become more and more polished and now moved to the Cathedral which creates a fantastic backdrop but perhaps detaches it from its original intentions.

Custom demised: The Midsummer Letting at Congresbury and Puxton

A curious lost custom is recorded by Thomas Collinson, in his 1791 History of the County of Somerset where he describes a unique custom that was celebrated on the Saturday before old Midsummer Day in the parishes of Congresbury and Puxton. T. F. Thistelton-Dwyer (1878) British Popular customs records that:

“At two large pieces of common land, called East and West Dolemoors. These, he says, were divided into single acres, each bearing a peculiar and different mark cut on the turf, such as a horn, four oxen and a mare, two oxen and a mare, pole-axe, cross, dung-fork, oven, duck’s nest, hand reel, and hare’s tail.”

He continues:

“On the Saturday before old Midsummer Day, several proprietors of estates in the parishes of Congresbury, Puxton, and Week St. Lawrence, or their tenants, assembled on the commons. A number of apples were previously prepared, marked in the same manner with the before-mentioned acres, which were distributed by a young lad to each of the commoners from a bag or hat. At the close of the distribution, each person repaired to his allotment as his apple directed him, and took possession for the ensuing year. An adjournment then took place to the house of the overseer of Dolemoors (an officer annually elected from the tenants), where four acres, reserved for the purpose of paying expenses, were let by inch of candle, and the remainder of the day was spent in sociability and hearty mirth.”

The origins of this custom are unclear  but its association with marks in the turf shows as shown above indicates perhaps an affinity to customs such as the scouring of the white horse however no authors appear to have noticed this strange aspect of the custom either.

F.W. Weaver wrote iin volume 12 of Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries (September 1910) that these carvings may be Saxon in origin. Quoting Frederick Seebohm’s English Village Community’s one of the Laws of Ine:

“If ceoris have common meadow or other land divided into strips (gedal land) to fence and some have fenced their strip (doel) and some have not,” Seebohm remarks that ‘There is here in the smallest possible compass the most complete evidence that in the seventh century the fields of Wessex were common open fields the arable being divided into acres and the meadows into doles, and as the system is incidentally mentioned as a thing existing as a matter of course, it is not likely to have been suddenly or recently introduced.  The evidence throws it back, therefore, at least to the earliest period of Saxon rule.’

This letting of the Somerset Dolemoors is mentioned in William Hone’s Every-day Book, Vol. 2 (1878) where the above image is taken. Sadly when the moors were enclosed the custom was discontinued in 1811.