The Mayor of Ock Street is one of the few surviving mock mayors in England, elected by the residents of Ock Street and what was originally the courts leading off the street, plus the members of the morris team. Originally the custom was associated with the Abingdon June Fair, held on 20th June each year, with the Mayor of Ock Street and the morris dancers processing through the town on the following day. The election of the mayor took place on the day before the fair, and the present event takes place on the Saturday nearest 19th June [click here for more information on this date] . A polling station is set up at the team’s headquarter’s (the Brewery Tap) and votes are cast between 10am and 4pm. The morris team and guests set off at 10am to dance around the town, and return to the polling station by 4pm. The votes are then counted and the result is announced soon afterwards. The ‘real’ mayor of Abingdon is usually in attendance, continuing an association first reported in the 19th century. The new mayor is carried in the ceremonial chair up and down Ock Street and the dancing continues to the evening.

Although the election is said to date back to the 18th century, we don’t know the names of the elected mayors for many of the early years, but here are the ones we do know.

1835: Thomas Leonard

1860-1885: Thomas Hemmings (though there were some years in this period when there was no election).  He did not stand for Mayor in June 1885, and died in August 1885.

1885: William Hemmings, son of Thomas.

1893: Charles Cox

1910: William Hemmings was recognised as still being Mayor, though there had not been an election for many years (possibly not since 1899).  In 1910 he told Mary Neal that he had been elected nine times.

1929-1935: William Hemmings died in January 1930 and was in poor health for some years before that.  In 1929, James Hemmings assumed the title of Mayor in a ceremony held in the back yard of the Cross Keys.

1937-1945: Henry Hemmings, brother of William (who had died in 1930) and James (who had died in 1935).

Click here for Mayor’s Day Election Results from 1949 onwards.

Click here for more historical details of the election up to 1910.

Click here for photos of every Mayor of Ock Street since 1938

Up to 1972, some local morris teams were invited to join in the evening dancing down Ock Street, starting at the White Horse at 6pm. From 1973, guest teams from outside the area (and sometimes from outside the UK) have been invited for the whole day. Click here for Mayor’s Day Guest Teams from 1973.