Wallingford Market Place will host live music, dancing and a play on Saturday (July 15) to celebrate the history of the curfew bell.
St Martin’s and St Mary’s Street will be closed between 3pm and 10pm for the new community event, which organisers hope will continue as an annual celebration.
From 4pm to 5pm, there will be a quarter peal of bells from St Mary’s Church before a short announcement on the history of the bell (in 1069, the town was granted an extra hour of curfew by William the Conqueror for allowing his army to cross the river Thames in 1066, and, to this day, the curfew bell still rings every evening at around 9pm).
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Live music will be played by the Coverbuoys from 5.15pm and the Antler Ceilidh band from 7pm, while a Mummers' play, a folk play performed by a troupe of amateur actors, will be staged at 7.50pm.
Wallingford Town Hall will be open with a display from the museum, and there will be heritage workshop with artist Kremena Dimitrova in the marketplace from 2pm to 5pm.
The announcement of the poetry compeition will go ahead at 6.35pm.
From 8.50pm, the curfew bell will ring, an announcement will be made and a choir will sing to finish the celebration.
Security will service the diversions necessary while the marketplace is closed to northbound and southbound traffic.
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