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Beating the Bounds

Monday 5th April 2010

Ashtead Rector Bob Kiteley looked back to historical rituals as part of the parish’s Easter celebrations and invited local people to enjoy some healthy exercise, while protecting our village and its official boundaries. Bob explained: “In olden days, when maps were rare, parish residents would come together on key religious dates to ‘beat the bounds’ – which means walking the parish to mark its boundaries and pass that information on to future generations. It was also an opportunity to pray for its protection and enjoy its natural beauty.”   Historically the formal walk was led by the parish priests, churchwardens and other church officials alongside a crowd of boys who, armed with green boughs usually of birch or willow, beat the parish boundary markers with them. The boys themselves were sometimes whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember – though there is no danger of that happening in Ashtead in 2010! The reason for taking the boys on the walk was to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible, hence passing the information down the generations.

Ashtead Parish Boundary Walk