Health and safety catches up with ‘beating of the boundaries’

Health and safety fears have finally caught up with a 450-year-old Cornish tradition in which people knock their heads against the stone boundary of a town.

In the Beating of the Boundaries ceremony, residents in Helston are lifted in the air horizontally and have their heads tapped against stones that mark the boundary of the town.

The tradition, which dates back to Queen Elizabeth I’s charter of 1585, initially only involved young boys and was supposed to imbue them with the knowledge of where the boundary was.

In modern times, adults and children alike have taken part.

However, Helston Town Council – which organises the event – now wants to change it. It has proposed that people have the option to kneel and touch their head on the stone or to hit it with sticks to make things safer.

The motion was put forward at a staff committee meeting on Sept 9 and was recommended by councillors, including the town’s mayor.

A final decision will be made at a full council meeting on Thursday evening.

Under the motion, a ban is also proposed on council staff lifting people into the air. The ban would not apply to those who do not work for the council.

In a post shared on a Facebook group, a spokesman for the council said: “The proposal is categorically not about stopping people being lifted to tap their heads on the stones as part of this ancient tradition.

“Our proposal is that Helston Town Council staff and workers will no longer offer to lift children and adults due to serious safety concerns raised by everyone.

“This proposal would not prevent parents lifting their children, or adults from lifting each other as part of the event.”

The boundaries of Helston, which was granted a charter by King John in 1201, were once marked with a stone at three corners of the town and a “toft”, a tuft of grass, at the fourth.

The boundary stones have since been rendered inaccurate, as the boundary of the town expanded in 1934 and 1985, but the tradition of the Beating of the Boundaries has lived on.

In past years, children were armed with sticks and would use them to beat a sod of turf that was dug out of the ground – before they were lifted into the air and bumped head-first against the stones.

Versions of the Beating of the Boundaries are carried out in towns and villages across England and Wales, while in Scotland a similar tradition is known as Riding the Marshes.