Kirtlington - Lamb Ale

Lamb Ale

The annual village festival is called the Lamb Ale. By 1679 it was an established tradition that would start the day after Trinity Sunday and last for two days. That year Thomas Blount and Josiah Beckwith wrote:

At Kidlington in Oxford-shire the Custom is, That on Monday after Whitson week, there is a fat live Lamb provided, and the Maids of the Town, having their Thumbs ty'd behind them run after it, and she that with her mouth takes and holds the Lamb, is declared Lady of the Lamb, which being dress'd with the skin hanging on, is carried on a long Pole before the Lady and her Companions to the Green, attended with Musick and a Morisco Dance of Men, and another of Women, where the rest of the day is spent in dancing, mirth and merry glee. The next day the Lamb is part bak'd, boyld and rost, for the Ladies feast, where she sits majestically at the upper end of the Table and her Companions with her, with musick and other attendants, which ends the solemnity.

It is considered that the reference to Kidlington was a mistake, and that Kirtlington was the correct location. Later the festival extended to a whole week and in 1849 three special constables were sworn in "for the better preservation of peace and order at the ensuing Lamb Ale Feast". The custom died out early in the 1860s.

In 1979 Kirtlington Morris was formed and revived the tradition in a modified form. Every year since the Ale has been held at the end of May or in early June. Typically about 20 morris sides attend the festival.