{"id":18774,"date":"2017-06-17T21:03:11","date_gmt":"2017-06-17T20:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=18774"},"modified":"2017-06-17T21:03:11","modified_gmt":"2017-06-17T20:03:11","slug":"mayor-of-ock-street-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=18774","title":{"rendered":"Mayor of Ock Street 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The date is June 19th 1700. A line has been drawn in the dust of the Vineyard alongside the brewery. Another line has been drawn at the top of Ock Street near the Square. The people of Abingdon have just enjoyed ox roasted on the Market Place. A famous battle then ensued between the men of the Vineyard and the men of Ock Street for the ox. The combat was fierce as each side fought to bring the ox over their own line. Legend has it that the Vineyard men had nearly succeeded when a man named Hemmings crashed an apple wood cudgel on the head of a Vineyard opponent, cut the ox head from the carcass with a sword, and made it back to the Ock Street Line.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061714.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nThose same horns were on display again 317 years later on a glorious Saturday in 2017 &#8211; the nearest Saturday to the original June 19th, when there is a day of morris dancing.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061705.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nThe president of the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers is still a Hemmings, namely Mr Ewart Hemmings. His Uncle was the famous Mayor of Ock Street, Tom Hemmings, and his Grandfather was Henry Hemmings &#8211; also Mayor of Ock Street.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061703.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nThe Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, with a visiting team from Oxford, danced at many venues along Ock Street and in the town centre, including a new stop outside the Broad Face.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061704.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nAfter dancing round a tree planted in honour of former bagman, Tony Russell, at the almshouses,<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061706.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nthey went to another new stop where free beer was provided by Pam, and danced there too.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061707.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nMeanwhile the poll to elect the 2017 Mayor of Ock Street was taking part all day. All people living or working down Ock Street have a vote.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061708.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nThe count took place at the Brewery Tap, officiated over by the Town Clerk, the Mayor of Abingdon, and Mr Ewart Hemmings.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061711.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nRoger Cox graciously conceded to Harry Knight who had got double the amount of votes &#8211; 61 to 122 . Roger will continue in the role of the fool for the next year, having been Mayor every year from 2007 and 2013.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061712.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nThe Mayor of Abingdon, Cllr Jan Morter, presented the Mayor of Ock Street with the sash of office, sword, top hat, and the applewood bowl, whose wood dealt the legendary blow in 1700.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag17\/17061715.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor of Ock Street\" \/><br \/>\nMr Harry Knight was then carried in honour down Ock Street by his men. He has been elected in 2014, 2016, and 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The date is June 19th 1700. A line has been drawn in the dust of the Vineyard alongside the brewery. Another line has been drawn at the top of Ock Street near the Square. The people of Abingdon have just enjoyed ox roasted on the Market Place. A famous battle then ensued between the men [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}