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celebration to be held in Lower Monkswood (kindly lent by J Druce Esq)

Jubilee 1887

Jubilee 1887 (12 Jul 1887)

‘All Children over 8 years of age to assemble at the Board School at 2 o’clock. Children under that age to meet at the Infants’ School at the same time. The Freeland Band will attend and preceed (sic) the Children to the Field. Children’s Tea at 3 o’clock. Meat Tea for Men and Women at 4.30. Children provide their own Cups. Men and Women to provide a Plate, Knife and Fork, and Cup for tea. Swings and Roundabouts on the Ground. Children will be charged half the usual price.’

The Oxford Times reported in detail on Eynsham's preparations for the Jubilee in summer 1887. The committee included local chemist and stationer Henry Howe as chairman and railway station master Charles Faulks as secretary.

Local builder Walter Wilkins arranged a Jubilee treat at his home in Mill Street for some 250 village children, who received ‘unlimited’ supplies of ‘tea, plum cake and jam’. Swings and other amusements were provided and the proceedings ended with a firework display to which parents were also invited.

The sports were keenly contested. Winners in the boys’ and men’s events were awarded from one to five shillings in cash; while prizes for the girls’ and women’s events (except the women's tug-of-war where the heroines took home sixpence each!) were lengths of calico: 15 yards for the winner, and 10 for the runner-up. Climbing the greasy pole won a leg of mutton.

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