Beating the Bounds of Old Scarborough
Photographs taken on Sunday 15 June 2003
by Martin Haggerty, Geoff Wood and Sara Adams

A perambulation of the boundaries of the medieval Old and New Boroughs of Scarborough

Sometimes we beat the bounds of the old borough of Scarborough. This is a light-hearted perambulation of the western boundary of the old medieval town. Something similar took place for centuries, at the start of the great Scarborough Fair, on what was called Jabler's Day.

The old Scarborough custom of proclaiming the Fair
The town's officers, preceded by a band of musicians and accompanied by crowds of men, women and children, made a grand procession. The heads of horses and the hats of their riders were adorned with flowers. The cavalcade paraded the streets, halting at particular locations, where and the common crier made proclamation and welcomed strangers to the town. When the cavalcade had paraded through every quarter, the whole party dismounted to join in the sports. Ballads were sung and played to street audiences. Minstrels, puppet shows, jugglers and all the traditional sources of medieval merriment and pleasure abounded.

Beating the Bounds 2003
Based on events in Scarborough's history, small dramatic interludes recalled the surrender of the Castle to Parliamentarian troops and the seventeenth-century Bouncing of the Mayor, as well as our revival of the ancient tradition of trying the King of Fools. There was a parade of all comers in fancy dress as characters from any period of Scarborough's rich history, short on-site addresses about excavations beneath the old town, and a finale fair at the Queen Victoria statue on St Nicholas Cliff.

Characters who took part include the present Mayor of Scarborough, the Town Crier, Mrs Farrer (who found Scarborough Spa), Doctor Wittie (who made it famous), Sir Hugh and Lady Cholmley, Dickie Dickinson, Duchess of Marlborough, Sir Matthew Boynton, the Town Beadle and giant puppets of King Henry II, Edith Sitwell, a herring lass and a herb-seller (made at a series of workshops run by Crescent Arts). Many people dressed up in historical costume, the choice was almost infinite, as everyone who was anyone used to come to Scarborough. Others came along just to enjoy the spectacle!

Hamps Street Band entertained us with their music along the way.

See photographs of the event in 2002. If you would you like to join in making costumes, banners, lanterns and music then get in touch.