Out & About Spring 2019

The Commoners lunch takes place during the afternoon at the Corn Exchange, with speeches, toasts and the Plantagenet Punch – a particularly alcholic concoction. The meal is followed by Shoeing the Colts, when first-time visitors have a horsehoe nailed to their heel by the blacksmith until they call “Punch”. From 5pm, anchovies on toast are served at the Three Swans and the Tuttimen return from their rounds around 9pm.

More than 150 years after the Green Man was last spotted at the Kintbury May Day celebrations, he returned in 2016 when villager Sam Wimbridge revived the ancient pagan tradition and spent a day putting together an outfit adorned with branches and leaves and decorating his face green. He joined fellow maypole dancers Garston Gallopers and the Kintbury May Maids as they paid homage to the May Queen and King and their attendants.

The Marvyn Dole is an ancient charitable distribution in the form of loaves and cloth, which are given to the residents of Ufton Nervet every Maundy Thursday (or nearby) from the big house in the village, Ufton Court. In 1581 Lady Marvyn left money in her will to pay for the bequest, having been well looked after by the villagers when she was lost in the woods nearby. Today, loaves and towels are passed from a window of the house above the terrace to the recipients outside (you have to have been invited as an eligible parisioner). Originally the dole was given out every Maundy Thursday – now it is on the last Thursday of the Easter term to enable children from the local school to take part. In 2018 it was on Thursday March 22 (the week before Maundy Thursday) – 2019’s date is yet to be announced. Grazing rights for Church Acres belong to the church of St Mary the Virgin. They are distributed triennially at a candle auction in December, when a horseshoe nail is inserted into a tallow candle one inch below the wick. The candle is lit and grazing rights go to the highest bidder at the moment the nail drops out. The next auction should take place later this year. Organisers believe Chedzoy in Somerset is the only other village in the country which still observes the tradition, although only once every 21 years.

The Green Man

Marvyn Dole

Aldermaston Auction

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