Dunmow Flitch Trials
An analysis of all marriages between 1964 and 2019 in England and Wales shows that a third end in divorce, lasting on average 12.3 years with over 45s three and a half times more likely to dissolve their union than those aged between 25 and 34. In the Middle Ages, and possibly as early as Saxon times, when marriages were commercial or dynastic arrangements rather than love matches, wedded bliss may have been a rarity, but ceremonies sprang up around the country where couples were invited to declare publicly their fidelity to each other.
The reward for a couple who could convince the crowd was a flitch of bacon, half a pig cut lengthwise. The most famous such event was held in Dunmow, supposedly instituted in 1244 by Robert Fitz-Walter, and merited a mention by both Geoffrey Chaucer, in the Prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale (lines 223 – 4), and by William Langland, in Piers Plowman, “though they go to Dunmow/ they never fetch the Flitch”.
Kneeling on sharp stones in a churchyard, a couple who had been married a year were invited to swear an oath that “neither of them in a year and a day, neither sleeping or waking, repented of their marriage”. If they were successful in their claim, the winning couple, together with their side of bacon and an entourage of musicians, were paraded around the town. The judges were hard taskmasters, bearing out Langland’s comments, as records held in Little Dunmow Priory show the flitch was awarded only six times. The last of the original prizes was given on June 20, 1751. Artist, David Ogborne, was on hand to make sketches which he later turned into engravings.
Attempts over the next century to revive the tradition met with manorial opposition, the Lord of the Manor thwarting John and Susan Gilder’s attempt to hold the ceremony on June 12, 1772, by nailing the Priory’s doors shut. In 1832 Josiah Vine and his wife travelled all the way from Reading to stake their claim only to be refused entrance by the steward of the manor. The same fate befell a couple from Felstead in 1851, but the residents of Dunmow took pity on them and paid for a flitch of bacon for them.
This story piqued the interest of novelist, William Ainsworth, who used it as the basis for his 1854 novel, The Flitch of Bacon. The book’s success led to a revival of the tradition in 1855, the author himself donating two filches to help things along.
The ceremony is now held under the auspices of the Dunmow Fitch Trials Committee every four years on a leap year at Talbert’s Ley Park in Great Dunmow. Couples appear in front of a judge and a jury made up of six single men and six single women, their case pleaded by two barristers while two act as devil’s advocates.
If a couple is successful in pleading their case, are carried aloft in the Flitch Chair in a procession to the Town Hall, preceded by a ceremonial flitch of bacon bedecked with mock orange blossoms and ribbons. This flitch is eaten by the organising committee the following day, while the winners have to make do with a voucher to the value of the flitch which they can present to a butcher, ensuring no pigs are unnecessarily slaughtered in the event that no couple is successful. Unsuccessful couples walk away with a joint of gammon.
The 2020 Trial has been cancelled twice because of Covid restrictions, but the organisers have planned a ceremony for July 9, 2022. I hope a lucky couple bring home the bacon.
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