The Polygon School were invited to take part in a very special and old tradition of “Beating the Bounds” this year. We took four student ambassadors who also observed a “Court Leet” session.
Beating the bounds and Court Leet are both ancient historical ceremonies dating back at least 800 years! Both ceremonies take place on the first Tuesday after Michaelmas which marks the end of harvest season and the approaching winter.
We walked from school to The Bargate where we met the city Sheriff and the town Cryer. They explained the tradition of Beating the Bounds. Hundreds of years ago the city was surrounded by boarder stones so that people knew where their land was. Once a year the young boys of the town were taken to the boundary stones and beaten on them so that they knew not to cross their boundaries and to protect their land. Luckily these days we do not do that! Instead, we took sticks and beat the boundary walls. We were taught a lot about the history of Southampton and it was very informative.
Next, we went to the Civic Centre to observe “Court Leet”. This was essentially a trail with a jury and a judge (the city Sheriff). Residents of Southampton then presented their issues to the Sheriff and the jury and they decided if they were going to help them with their presented issue.
We then went to have lunch and a look around the Mayors Parlour-we had backstage passes if you will! One of the boys even sat in a chair in the Mayors Parlour that the late Queen had sat in when she visited Southampton.
All of the pupils taken were excellent representatives of the school-thank you and well done boys!
