Common Riding

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The Selkirk Standard Bearer leads in the Cavalcade at The Toll

Common Riding is an annual event celebrated in Border towns, to commemorate the times of the past when local men risked their lives in order to protect their town and people.

1 Hawick
2 Selkirk
3 Common Ridings today
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Hawick

The Hawick Common Riding commemorates a victory of local youths over an English raiding party in 1514, who had planned to sack and burn the town. The English raiders, led by the Prior of Hexham, had looted throughout much of Teviotdale and were encamped in Hornshole, near Minto. Although Hawick had lost most of its men at Flodden the previous year, the boys and youths of the town, arming themselves with whatever they could find, set upon the unguarded English camp, where the raiders lay drunk or asleep. The English were massacred and the youth of Hawick returned with the banner of the Priory of Hexham. A replica of this blue-and-gold flag has been carried on the Common Ridings ever since.

In March 2007 The Rough Guide tourism book wrote that Hawick Common Riding was one of the best parties in the world. It praises the event, which "combines the thrills of Pamplona's Fiesta de San Fermin with the concentrated drinking of Munich's Oktoberfest". Guide book praises common riding

[edit] Selkirk

The Selkirk Common Riding remembers the young men who rode around their town’s boundaries checking for encroachments by neighboring settlements. The job was one often brimming with danger, with risk of murder or kidnapping never far from the minds of those who ventured out. It also remembers how after the disastrous Battle of Flodden Field only one man from the town (the Town Clerk) returned.

[edit] Common Ridings today

Today Common Ridings attract large numbers of crowds gathering from all around the world, as Borderers pay respects to those who risked their lives protecting the townspeople. The mounted procession around the towns' lands is usually lead by a Standard Bearer or Callants, who is picked from the towns' young men.

The oldest Common Ridings are held at Hawick, Selkirk, Langholm and Lauder, with histories tracing back over hundreds of years, though most border towns hold some type of similar event each year.