One of the ancient Whitsun Ales, the Kirtlington Lamb Ale can be traced back to the early 1600’s, and took the form of a village festival and feast. Since Kirtlington Morris was revived in 1979, the Lamb Ale has been an annual event held on the weekend of Trinity Sunday.
The Sunday sees morris happening all over the village, starting with a procession to church and a Lamb Ale service for those so inclined. This year we were lucky enough
to be invited to join the festivities.
We were, to be honest, a bit short handed, and so pictures are of everyone except us.
We joined the procession to the church, and, following the service, the procession through the village to the school.
After a dance from all the attending sides, we split up and moved to different locations around the village. We started at the Dashwood Arms.
We then moved on to the Oxford Arms, where our hosts joined us.
As anyone who has been following the cricket World Cup will know, the weather has been a bit, well, soggy of late. Our next stop was to be outside the Village Hall,
but a downpour moved us into the hall. After that, it was back to the school for one last dance each.
The Lamb Ale is quite a do. For the last dance at the school, we were the 19th side to dance! A good day; we’ll be hoping to be invite back.