Mayor of Ock Street
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The Mayor of Ock Street is a Mock Mayor tradition in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
An ancient tradition, common to many towns in this area of England, involved the election of a “mock mayor”, usually a well known local character, whose job it was to speak up for the local people, causing embarrassment to the properly elected mayor and council when they took unpopular decisions. The “Mayor of Ock Street” is Abingdon’s mock mayor. He is elected annually, on the Saturday nearest midsummer’s day, by the residents of Ock Street. Candidates are drawn from the membership of the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, who organise the election and who each year carry the newly elected mayor along Ock Street on their shoulders. The mayor has two symbols of office, the Mace, a turned apple-wood chalice, and a sword, and he is preceded by the Ock Street Horns.
