Custom
The Walton Bridle
To curb women's tongues which talk too idle.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Replica iron scold's bridle in a case
- Legend from
- Recorded object (1633)
- Best time
- Church open hours
- Tone
- Dark history
Chester sent Walton a gift: an iron bridle, to curb women's tongues.
In St Mary's at Walton-on-Thames is a wooden case holding a scold's bridle. This was an iron cage locked over a woman's head with a flat piece pressed on her tongue, used to punish women accused of nagging or gossip. The church's own bridle was dated 1633 and, the parish says, came from Chester in 1723. It carried a rhyme that Chester gave it to Walton 'to curb women's tongues which talk too idle'. The original was stolen in 1965 and a copy is now shown. Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat pokes fun at it.