Dunmow Flitch

The Dunmow Flitch is not a dish, but a side (flitch) of bacon awarded on Whit-Monday every four years, after a light-hearted 'trial' and great ceremony, to a married couple who can swear that they have neither quarrelled nor repented their marriage for one year and one day.


19th Century (?) Dunmow Trials
Image: Unknown

It is mentioned in Chaucer's 14th century Canterbury Tales by the many-husbanded Wife of Bath;

I sette hem so a-werke, by my fey,
That many a nyght they songen "weilawey!"
The bacon was nat fet for hem, I trowe,
That som men han in Essex at Dunmowe.


Picture courtesy of The Dunmow Flitch Trials Committee