page_title: Little Dunmow
section_title: The Flitch Trials
hierarchical_section_title: Little Dunmow / The Flitch Trials
caption_attribution_description: English: Little Dunmow Church
context_page_description: Little Dunmow is a village situated in rural Essex, England, in the vale of the River Chelmer about 3 miles east-southeast of the town of Great Dunmow. It can be reached from the Dunmow South exit of the A120 by following the road towards Braintree for 3.2 km before turning right for the village. The centre of the old village, which has just 99 dwellings, is a further 0.6 km along the road. The Flitch Way, a linear country park along the route of the old Braintree to Bishop's Stortford railway, links Little Dunmow and the new settlement of Flitch Green. The new village, built on the site of a former sugar beet factory, is a self-contained community of 850 dwellings and is another kilometre along the road towards Felsted.
context_section_description: Little Dunmow was the original home of the Flitch Trials which now take place in Great Dunmow every four years. The ancient Flitch of bacon custom rewarded a couple who had been married in church and remained 'unregreted' for a year and a day, with a flitch of bacon. The claimants had to swear an oath kneeling on two sharp pointed stones in the churchyard. They were then carried through the village to be acclaimed. In later years they were carried in the Flitch Chair, thought to be made from pew ends from the Priory Church. The original kneeling stones and 15C Flitch chair can still be seen within the church.
  The last recorded Priory trial was held in 1751 but the custom was revived in Victorian times following the 1854 publication of the novel The Flitch of Bacon by William Harrison Ainsworth
caption: The Flitch Chair
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