Emma & Emma, the first same-sex couple to win the Flitch Trials (image: Dunmow Flitch Trials)
The Dunmow Flitch Trials, a tradition that has been running every 4 years, for over 920 years in the small town Great Dunmow in Essex and dates back as far as 1104. The goal: for married couples of at least a year to prove that “they have not wisht themselves unmarried again”, in front of a jury of six maidens and six bachelors in July…What do they win? A flitch of bacon.
The same as a carnival and town pantomimes, the Flitch Trials is another event on the calendar that brings a town together for a celebration as the ceremony andwalk happens in and around the town of Dunmow. In total there are 4 couples who ‘claim the bacon’ and one couple who are ‘winners of the gammon.’
“We think honouring our shared experiences is really important.” Explains one of the winners, Anna McMaster from Austin in Texas. “We’ve really grown up together and love to look back on everything that we have achieved which we would never trade for anything.”
The great thing about the Flitch Trials is that it is open to everyone who fits the category and brings in people from all around the country and even across the seas.
‘ With each Trial comes amusement, entertainment, renewed community spirit and another piece of history in a beautiful and prosperous town.’
However, the 2024 Dunmow Flitch Trials had a little twist this year though and homed the first win of same-sex couple, Emma Hynds and Emma D’Costa have been the first same-sex couple to bring home the bacon! Although the Flitch Trials have allowed same-sex couples to enter since the change of law in 2014, no couples had ever entered until this year. Now that
The Flitch Trials 2024: The Flitch Chairs (image: Dunmow Flitch Trials)
both the Emma’s have broken the cycle of having same-sex couples getting involved in this village tradition, the hopes for more entries with the next Flitch Trials is at an all time high.
Although this hometown tradition may already sound quite odd, the best part of the whole event is when the winners get to be carried down the town’s high street on shoulder high chairs (as pictured) which are known as the ‘flitch chairs.’
The biggest part of the Dunmow Flitch Trials is that it brings the sense of community together for another fun, lighthearted and enjoyable day for the whole family and even people who are not usually from the Dunmow town family.
As stated on the Dunmow Flitch Trials website: ‘ With each Trial comes amusement, entertainment, renewed community spirit and another piece of history in a beautiful and prosperous town.’
Here is to the 2028 Flitch Trials!