Custom · Abingdon
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Won in a brawl, carried in a dance.
See it clearly
Election and dancing in Ock Street and the Market Place, around midsummer. Check before you go.
Two streets fought over a roasted ox's horns in 1700. Ock Street won and is still celebrating.
Every June the people of Ock Street, Abingdon, elect their own mock mayor, and the town's traditional morris men dance him through the streets. The custom carries a grudge. Tradition says that around 1700 a feud between Ock Street and its rival neighbours ended in a contest for the horns of a roasted ox. Ock Street won. The horns, mounted on a pole, are still the morris side's regalia, and they will not dance without them. A newspaper of 1825 already called the election an 'ancient custom'.