'Mayor Weighing Ceremony'

Join us Saturday May 20th between 11am – 4pm as we welcome in the new Mayor of High Wycombe with an ancestral ceremony taking place on the High Street – the ONLY town in the UK to still continue with this long established tradition.

High Wycombe celebrates the 300+ year old Mayor Weighing-In custom as part of a Heritage Fayre on the High Street – Saturday 20^th May from 11am – 4pm

 The ceremonial ‘Mayor Weighing-In’ takes place from 11.45am

Not to be outdone by the King’s recent celebrations, High Wycombe will be once again rolling out the red carpet on Saturday 20^th May 2023, for the annual ‘Mayor Making’ event, a practice which has been taking place on the High Street since 1678.

The historic custom, which sees many of the town’s dignitaries weighed-in on traditional ceremonial seated scales, takes place each time a new town mayor is elected, and represents the ‘tolling out’ and ‘weighing-in’ of the officials – a method originally used to measure corruption in the town.   High Wycombe is the ONLY town to continue the ‘Weigh-In’ tradition.

With High Wycombe soon welcoming its new Mayor, Cllr Paul Turner, the 17^th Century scales are being brought out once again to continue the tradition. The ceremony will begin from 11.45am, adjacent to The Guildhall, with the Town Crier lending his full voice.

This year’s event will be the centrepiece of a Heritage Fayre, hosted by HWBIDCo – the High Wycombe town centre team – and will see a whole host of activities celebrating the town’s rich traditions, including interactive historical Storytelling, the ‘Ancient Apothecaries’ who’ll share their archaic remedies, musical Minstrels and juggling Jesters, as well as a Bodger – famed for their skilled furniture making synonymous within the region. PLUS, there’ll be a GIANT Chair, High Wycombe Monopoly Tombola and much more…