Beating the Bounds at High Wycombe

11:20am Monday 10th July 2006

THE ancient tradition of Beating the Bounds was continued by High Wycombe mayor Cllr Darren Hayday on Sunday as he toured the boundary stones in the town centre.

The ritual saw two youngsters turned upside and knocked against a bumping box to mark out the boundaries.

Cllr Hayday paraded from the first boundary stone, known as the Pagan Stone, at the rear of All Saints' Church, to the second stone outside Guildhall in High Street.

In the sweltering heat it was decided to cut the procession short and not go on to visit the many other stones along the boundary.

Cllr Hayday said: "It is a tradition and it is one of those weird things that is unique to High Wycombe. I had a choice whether I wanted to do it or not but I decided it would be nice to carry the tradition on. It was boiling hot in we managed to survive. To do the whole route would have been impossible."

The custom dates back many centuries to the days before ordnance survey maps when it was necessary to walk the parish boundaries to mark them out afresh each year. Beating the Bounds was common in towns until the nineteenth century, and died out in High Wycombe in the 1920s.

It was reintroduced by Frances Alexander during her mayoral year in 1998 and marker stones were put at the site of some of the original boundary stones.

The bumping box, a small wooden box kept in the Mayor's Parlour, is thought to be unique to High Wycombe. During the procession on Sunday the box was carried by Jon Taylor, the town crier, and John Clark, the town clerk.

Cllr Hayday said: "It was really good fun and we had a good crowd watching. We even managed to find a boy to bump who didn't scream too much."

The procession followed a civic service held in All Saints' Church in the morning.