DURING June, we have enjoyed some wonderful community events with the Big Lunch, Bicester Festival and Carnival.

These continue a great tradition of fairs and other festivities which took place at Bicester Priory back in the middle ages, particularly around the Feast of St Edburg, our Patron Saint.

Edburg was probably an Anglo-Saxon nun or abbess of royal descent.

It was a popular name for ladies at that time and several were celebrated as saints.

We cannot be sure which one is the patron of Bicester, but the banner in the church, which was made in 1943, portrays St Edburg of Winchester.

She was the daughter of Edward the Elder, granddaughter of Alfred the Great, and was a nun at Nunnaminster, near to where Winchester Cathedral now stands. Some of the ruins of her abbey can still be seen there.

The banner includes four coats of arms, which represent the Diocese of Oxford and Winchester, Province of Canterbury and Gilbert Basset, who founded Bicester Priory around 1182.

Although now very fragile, it can be seen in its display case in the north aisle of the church and it is still occasionally used in procession at patronal services.

The Priory was established for a prior and 11 canons of the Augustinian order and stood in what is now Old Place Yard.

The church, which was much larger than our parish church, was dedicated to St Mary and St Edburg. From the surviving priory records, we know the Feast of St Edburg was one of the major events on their calendar.

Locals, along with the pilgrims who came to venerate the relics held within her shrine in the Priory church, would be offered entertainment, in the form of music and plays, and refreshments.

For St Edburg’s Day 1296 there is a record of payment of 6d to ‘a minstrel’ and in 1434 to ‘some players.’ Other expenses recorded for the occasion include, in 1457, the purchase of three gallons of ale for the pilgrims.

After the Reformation and Dissolution of the Monasteries, saints were no longer celebrated and the festival lapsed.

However it was restored in Bicester, at the parish church, by the Revd. Gibbs Payne Crawfurd in 1894.

The years following saw its popularity grow as it re-established itself as a major event within the town.

While there was always a church service, usually with a guest preacher, there was also at least one social event.

The most lavish of these took place in the garden of Bicester House, which was beautifully decorated and lit up with lanterns and lamps.

There were stalls, games, fancy dress parades, whist drives, dancing on the lawn and a firework display.

They must have been wonderful occasions for the hard-working townspeople to come together to relax and enjoy themselves.

As the years passed and people found other interests, its popularity diminished. It started to move around different locations, including Old Place Yard, the Old Priory, the Garth, and the old Vicarage Garden.

It is still celebrated by St Edburg’s Church today, but on a much smaller scale.

It has, on occasion, revisited its roots, as the photo from the 1994 Medieval Fayre shows.

This year St Edburg's Church Summer Fete will take place on Saturday, July 14, from 10am to 1pm.

The following day there will be a Family Communion Service at 10.30am and Patronal Evensong at 6pm. All are welcome.