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Rogation and Beating the Bounds

Rogation is a religious ceremony from the days of the Catholic Religion in England, and involved the Parish Priest and Elders of the church and village praying for a bountiful harvest from the fields of the parish. It is still celebrated in church on Rogation Sunday. Beating the Bounds is a very ancient festival, originally it was to enable boundary stones and hedges to be checked over, to maintain the handing down of local area knowledge to the next but one generation. The stones and hedges were literally beaten to ward off evil spirits from the fields and thus, similar to Rogation Sunday, try to ensure a healthy harvest. It has its origins in Pagan times and continued up to very recent years. In modern times with accurate mapping and aerial photography, many parishes have stopped the annual Beating the Bounds. Rogation Sunday festivities were often combined with Beating the Bounds or Boundarys. This clipping from a magazine is undated but is likely to be from the 1970s.