Wiltescire 1086 ‘Shire centred on Wilton (‘farmstead or village where willow-trees grow)’

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Salisbury Cathedral

Oak Apple Day

07.30 Morning Worship with Holy Communion

10.00 Oak Apple Day Ceremony

17.30 Choral Evensong

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Oak Apple Day in Great Wishford

Early in the morning on Royal Oak Day, residents of Great Wishford in Wiltshire are woken by an excited crowd making its way to forest. From the forest an oak bough is removed, decorated and then hanged from the tower of St Giles' Church.

In order to maintain their charter, the villagers must proclaim their right at a special ceremony in Salisbury Cathedral, where they repeat the ancient refrain:

"Grovely, Grovely and all Grovely".

The celebrations are then continued back in Great Wishford, with dancing and general revelry.

The occasion marks an ancient decree that allows residents to collect oak from Grovely Woods; the day includes a trip to Salisbury, dancing in the Cathedral Close, and brass band
music back in the village.

There is dancing in the middle of the village, races, a beer tent, a marquee in which villagers have their dinner. They then have a maypole, they've had a maypole with kids dancing round it since 1880 it's one of the longest surviving maypoles in the country for ribbon dancing.
At about half past six, they exhaust all the things you can possibly do in the village celebration, so it stops and they go for a quiet drink in a pub.

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