One of country’s oldest ceremonies held near Coventry

ONE of Britain’s oldest and weirdest ceremonies has once again taken place near Coventry.

In scenes that could have been taken straight from an episode of Little Britain, a group of people gathered before sunrise today in the middle of a field between Ryton and Stretton.

Throwing handfuls of coins into a stone hollow under the watchful eye of a Scottish nobleman’s agent, they each had to shout the words “wroth silver”.

Afterwards the hardy group retired to the Queens Head pub in Bretford to smoke clay pipes and tuck into a full English breakast.

The ancient Wroth Silver tradition, which dates back nearly 850 years to 1170, is held every year on Martinmas Eve.

It sees the Duke of Buccleuch also known as the steward of the Ancient Hundred of Knightlow sending his agent to collect taxes from the 25 surrounding parishes.

The amounts each parish has to pay varies from half a pence to 11.5p.

A total of 46p is raised, which once represented a princely sum.

If a parish defaulted on their payment, they were fined a white bull with red nose and ears.

Based on feudal law, the ceremony was once a common sight across the land and noted in the Domesday Book.

It died out with the advent of local government and modern methods of collecting taxes.

The ceremony is now carried out purely to keep the ancient tradition alive, and is widely regarded as Britain’s oldest surviving ceremony.

Wroth Silver is kept alive by David Eadon, a grandfather-of-six from Rugby, who has now been to 80 consecutive ceremonies after first going as a young boy.

Also there was Rachel Gladstone-Brown, the Duke’s agent, along with representatives from the 25 parishes, and the mayor of Rugby. Mr Eadon said: “I’ve been every year since 1938, when I was just four. My family have been every year since 1904. It’s really perpetuating an old ceremony which exists nowhere else in the country. It’s enjoyable. It’s rather nice for me and sentimental because my parents and grandparents used to go.

“My earliest memory is being taken in a Morris Eight car to the ceremony which takes place on Knightlow Hill.

“I’ve been organising it at a local level since 1965, when my father could no longer go. It needs people like us because it is a ceremony from 1,000 years ago.”

The stone hollow is thought to be all that’s left of an ancient stone cross.

The ceremony is held in the field on Knightlow Hill on the A45 between Ryton-on-Dunsmore and Stretton-on-Dunsmore, just east of the Wolston/Ryton roundabout.