Dunmow Flitch Trials test wedded bliss in bacon-based love-in

Happily married couples who are partial to pork products took part in a somewhat quirky 900-year-old tradition on Saturday.

The Dunmow Flitch Trials, where couples have to prove in a mock courtroom that their love is still true, take place every four years in the Essex village of Great Dunmow.

Loved-up pairs wanting to show their romance is still sizzling can come from anywhere, as long as they have been married for a year and a day and can prove they have “not wished themselves unmarried” for that period, in an attempt to win a flitch – a side of bacon.

Emma Hynds and Emma D’Costa, who were the first same-sex couple to be cross-examined by the jury, said it was a “privilege” to be at this year’s event.

They were one of five couple facing this trials this year.

Mrs Hynds, who grew up in the village, said it was something she always wanted to be involved in.

“I think the world has changed a lot over the last few years and with a tradition it’s good to encourage everyone to be a part of it – same sex or regardless,” she added.

Mrs D’Costa said: “To be the first same sex couple is historic and something we’re proud to be a part of.

“It’s just nice that [the organisers] have acknowledged that because not many places do.”

Yes, it might smack of the ITV show Mr and Mrs, which first aired in the UK in the 1960s, but this proclamation of undying love dates back much further.

Organisers said the trials can be traced to the 12th Century and were mentioned by Chaucer in The Wife of Bath’s Tale in the 14th Century.

It is claimed the origin of the Dunmow Flitch dates to 1104 and the Augustinian Priory of Little Dunmow when the lord of the manor, Reginald Fitzwalter, and his wife dressed themselves as humble folk and begged the blessing of the prior a year and a day after their marriage.

The prior, impressed by their devotion, gave them a flitch of bacon. Fitzwalter revealed his true identity and gave his land to the priory on the condition a flitch should be awarded to any couple who could claim they were similarly devoted.

The first winner on the trials’ recorded role of honour was Richard Wright, from Norwich, who took home the bacon in April 1445.

Some of the early winners were only mentioned by the husband’s name – so Mrs Wright is not named on this list.

Since then, winners have come from much further afield in the UK and even from the US and New Zealand in more recent years.

Desmond and Minette Carter are among the far-flung flitch winners, having travelled to Essex from Detroit in 2022.

Mr Carter had been a huge fan of The Prodigy’s singer and dancer, Keith Flint, who lived in Dunmow and died at his home there in 2019.

“Desmond and his fiancee Minette got married exactly a year and a day before the 2020 Flitch Trials, just so they could take part,” said Helen Haines, vice-chair of this year’s committee.

That event was cancelled because of the pandemic, but the couple travelled from the US for the rescheduled 2022 trials and were among the winners.

As well as this year’s event having the first same-sex couple involved, there was another first.

Laura Cohen, acted as bearer of the flitch, a role that only men have done previously.

She got involved simply by asking why women had never done this role before.

“The only rule of a bearer is to be a humble folk of the town so here I am,” she said.

“It’s no different really, it’s great fun.

“What’s really nice is walking through the High Street and seeing young girls particularly, looking and seeing that anything is possible

“It sounds far fetched but if you want to do something, do it and get involved especially in traditions like this, which I think are really important to carry on.”

As is custom, this year’s bacon battle took place in a marquee in front of a jury of “six maidens and six bachelors”, who had to be persuaded that in “twelvemonth and a day” the couples have “not wisht themselves unmarried again”.

A clerk is appointed to record the proceedings and an usher to maintain order.

Those who succeeded in proving marital harmony were then be paraded shoulder-high by bearers in the “ancient Flitch Chair” to the town’s Market Place, to take an oath.

Couples who fail to convince are given a bit of gammon as a consolation prize and must walk through the town behind an empty chair. Oh, the shame…

BBC Essex will be broadcasting live from this year’s Dunmow Flitch Trials from 10:00 BST – to hear more fascinating bacon-related news and views, listen here.