Mayor’s Day date

The election of the Mayor of Ock Street (Mayor’s Day) is held on the Saturday nearest the 19th June  …. except when it isn’t for some reason or other

Why is Mayor’s Day held on the Saturday nearest the 19th June?

  • In Victorian times at least, the election of the Mayor of Ock Street was held the night before St Edmund’s Fair which itself was always held on 20th June.  The morris dancers then paraded round the fair, which was a horse fair.  Since 1950, the election has always been held on a Saturday – normally the Saturday closest to the old date.

The Feast Day of St Edmund of Abingdon is 16th November, the date of his death.  Why was St Edmund’s Fair on 20th June?

  • Originally (up to 1750) it was held on 9th June which is the anniversary of Edmund being made a Saint.  The calendar changed in 1750 and 11 days were ‘lost’, so the 9th June was changed to the 20th to keep it as the same actual day of the ‘natural’ year.

Isn’t St Edmund’s Day 20th November, not the 16th?

  • No, that is the Feast Day of St Edmund King and Martyr – a much earlier person who was king of East Anglia in the 9th century and was killed by the Danes.  He is the Edmund who gave his name to Bury St Edmunds, home of Greene King.

Who was St Edmund of Abingdon?

  • He was born Edmund Rich in Abingdon about 1175, possibly in what is now St Edmunds Lane, and his mother is buried in St Nicolas church.  He became a scholar and teacher at Oxford and the site where he lived and taught is now the present day St Edmund Hall.  He left Oxford to become treasurer of Salisbury cathedral and then was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.

How precise is the date of 19th June for the original election of the Mayor of Ock Street?

  • Actually, according to press reports from the 19th century, some years the election seems to have been on the day of the fair itself (20th) and the dancing or parading round the town on 20th or 21st.  In some years when the fair fell on a Monday, the election seems to have been on the Saturday before (i.e. the 18th), presumably to avoid it being on a Sunday.  And of course some years it didn’t take place at all.  So the present formula of “the Saturday nearest the 19th, except when it isn’t” is pretty close to what it has always been.