A long-lived tradition
It is thought that the Baldon Feast, which took place every year on Marsh Baldon Green, started at least as long ago as the early 1800s. A notice appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal in August 1825, advertising the “Marsh Baldon Feast”. The origins of the event are thought to be a celebration of the feast day of St Lawrence, which is on the 10th of August. It generally occurred in the second or third week of August.
Until some time in the 20th Century, the Feast occupied two days – Monday and Tuesday – and was a holiday for the workers. It was also an occasion for those who had left the Baldons to return and re-unite with friends and family. There were also usually many visitors and sightseers from Oxford and beyond.
Religious services
In 1891, the Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette reported that on Feast Sunday, August 16th, special non-sectarian open-air services were held on the Green. In the afternoon a testimony meeting took place, and there was a large attendance. In the evening Gospel addresses were delivered by Messrs. R. Alden, H. Clifford, E. Jeffrey, Gooding, and Campion. The meeting was conducted by Mr. T. Moher, of Littlemore. A string band and a harmonium, at which Miss Moher presided, led the singing of some of Sankey's hymns.
The Oxford Times reported in 1908 that on the Sunday prior to the Feast, a dedication service was held, this being the nearest Sunday to St Lawrence’s Day. The vicar preached on the subject of almsgiving.
Over the years the religious element of the event diminished and the entertainment element increased. In September 1886 the vicar of Toot Baldon, James C. Ross, wrote “The Village Feast passed off without any unpleasant incidents, but we wish people would remember that, in the good old days, the village feasts had the Church for their centre. … the present system … wherein the public house forms the centre of attraction, to the no great edification of those who resort thereto.”
Activities
The format over many years was as a large fair on the Green, with a fairground, games, food and drinks. The entertainments on offer would include fairground rides, swing boats, shooting galleries, coconut shies, stalls, donkey rides and bowling for a pig. In 1913, Mr Short, gamekeeper on the Willoughby estate, won the pig! The fairground traders and stall holders were charged: in 1871 for example, one penny for every foot of stall frontage, and they had to be off the Green by 9pm on the Tuesday or else be treated as a trespasser.
Just the arrival of the fair was, in itself, a great spectacle. One villager remembers that when the fair came to the Green “The steam engines and horse and carts used to queue right back into Nuneham … It was a great big fair, it used to take up half the Green at one time.”.
Jack Greenaway recalled* “In my young days Baldon Feast was a huge affair: it stretched from The Seven Stars right back to Wells’ pond. Nowadays, it is over the other side of the green and it is much more civilised than it was then.”
There were also cricket matches played on both the days of the Feast, between the Baldons team and those from neighbouring towns and villages such as Garsington, Littlemore, Stadhampton, Dorchester and Horspath.
As may happen with any large gathering, several unfortunate events have been reported at the Feast:
- In 1825 Joseph Fruin of Toot Baldon, aged 7, was accidentally killed when struck by a stick thrown during a game at the Feast
- In 1894 a man named Tom Cooper was arrested at the Feast by PC Russell of Nuneham, as he was wanted by Aldershot Police for the theft of ten guineas
- In 1913 a fight broke out on the Monday evening, which required the police to intervene
- In 1917 seven horses were found straying on the highway at Cowley. They were found to belong to John Harding, a showman, who had allowed them to stray from Marsh Baldon Green during the Feast. He was fined ten shillings.
Baldon Feast – Looking Back and Forward
An article by Fiona Webster, appeared in The Baldons and Nuneham Courtenay Newsletter July/August edition in 2013. Click here to read this article which includes some memories of Baldon Feast in former times.
The Latest (Final?) Chapter
The Feast tradition lapsed in the early 2000s, but was revived in 2008, largely due to the efforts of the Slaney family. Unlike the Feasts of the 19th and 20th Centuries, these were one-day events, held on a Saturday. During this period the Feast comprised traditional games, such as “splat the rat” (not a real rat!), a few small fairground rides, stalls, a bar, live music and, of course, food. Feasts continued to be organised for several more years but eventually died out again. The last Feast was held in August 2016.
Advertisment for 2013 Feast
The “Drayton Dragster” fires up at the Baldon Feast, 2013
Advertisement for the (final) Baldon Feast, which took place on August 2016
* From: A Life in Creative Hands - A Short History of Baldon and Baldon House, Jack Greenaway.