Beating The Bounds

[Caran]

How many remember this. It was also called the Whit Walks.
It was a church thing. At Whitsun the congregation of the church formed a procession and walked along the boundaries of their parish. The young children were all lined up holding ropes. Eatery one wore their Sunday best.
There was an elected Rose Queen with attendants all in long dresses and headdresses.
It depended on whether the church was Protestant or Roman Catholic as to which day you walked, either Sunday or Monday.
It was one of my years highlights as a child.

[EDDIE51]

We did 'beating the bounds' of our town back in the early 1960s but it was organised by the Scouts nothing to do with the church.

[BlackadderV]

Beating the bounds and Whitsun were two distinct ceremonies. The former normally took place before the Whitsun walks. Until 1967 Whitsun was a bank holiday and a holy day of obligation, but later replaced by the Spring Bank Holiday,

[Caran]

I'm going back to late forties and fifties. We did our walk at Whitsun. Trouble is I remember which day we did our walk. I remember going into Manchester to watch the walks there on the days we didn't walk. They were a site to see, the polish community did a wonderful spectacle. So colourful.

[kvalidir]

They still do it in quite a few places around here (Herefordshire/ Worcestershire / Shropshire) with varying degrees of ceremony ( or not).

[Buenchico]

Remember it? We still do it!