Every four years, couples from all over the United Kingdom, and sometimes beyond, come to the little Essex village of Great Dunmow to take part in a 900-year old ceremony called the Dunmow Flitch Trials. In this curious tradition, married couples attempt to prove before a public jury that they have lived together in perfect harmony for a year and a day. If successful, they are ceremonially rewarded with a “flitch” of bacon, i.e. half a pig, in recognition of their conjugal bliss.
The tradition is rooted in the village of Great Dunmow, where it is believed to have originated in the 12th century. The earliest recorded reference dates to around 1104, at the priory of Little Dunmow Priory. According to legend, a noble couple, often identified as Reginald Fitzwalter and his wife, disguised themselves as peasants and sought a blessing from the prior after a year of marriage. Impressed by their devotion and lack of quarrel, the prior awarded them a flitch of bacon. The couple, pleased with the recognition, endowed the priory with land on the condition that any couple who could make the same claim would receive a similar reward.
From this story grew a formalized custom— any married pair who could swear that they had not regretted their union for a year and a day could claim a flitch of bacon from the priory, provided they could convince a jury of their peers.
In the Flitch Trials, couples present their case before a panel, presided over by a judge and attended by advocates, clerks, and a jury comprising of "six maidens and six bachelors". They must swear an oath affirming that they have not repented their marriage for a year and a day.
Those who succeeded in proving marital harmony were then be paraded shoulder-high by bearers in the "ancient Flitch Chair" to the town's Market Place, to take an oath. Couples who fail to convince are given a bit of gammon as a consolation prize and must walk through the town behind an empty chair.
The Dunmow flitch of bacon award festivities in 1905. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The custom gained prominence in medieval England and was referenced in literature as a symbol of ideal marriage. Writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer alluded to trials in the The Wife of Bath's Tale and William Langland referenced the Dunmow flitch trials in Piers Plowman.
Despite its popularity, the trials were never frequent, or perhaps due to poor record-keeping, only six names have officially laid claims over the bacon. In the 18th century, the flitch was awarded on only two occasions. By this time, the tradition had largely fallen into disuse, and authorities, for some reason, started turning down requests for trial. These requests started getting so persistent that in 1772, the gates of Dunmow Priory were nailed shut to prevent couples from harassing the Lord of the Manor.
Some people took matters in their own hands and started awarding flitches privately. In 1830 a silver flitch was given to the Duke of St. Albans, and in 1837 the mayor of Saffron Walden awarded a flitch at the annual agricultural dinner. In 1841 it was rumoured that Queen Victoria was offered a flitch on the anniversary of her marriage to Prince Albert. In 1851 a farmer from nearby Felsted was refused the flitch, but on this occasion there was sufficient popular support to revive the custom that a flitch was awarded privately at the nearby village of Little Easton.
The custom might have faded into obscurity were it not for William Harrison Ainsworth’s successful 1854 novel, The Flitch of Bacon. Ainsworth's novel proved so popular that it revived the custom which has continued in one form or another down to the present day and is now held every leap year.
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