Oulton Box Day

Just a few days ago I was telling at Oulton - At their annual Box Day Celebration. The village is very dispersed, but the villagers came up with an excellent way of bringing the community together. As part of the Millennium celebrations they asked every household to donate a box of bits and pieces that represented their family and the boxes were then stored in a purpose built metal chest that was encased in wood and held in Oulton Chapel. There they will stay in the Oulton Chapel Chest for 100 years before being handed back to the houses from whence they came. What a fantastic idea! Not only does that help unite the villages now, but should also unite them in the future. Even the storing of the boxes at the chapel has resonances with the past when all important documents relating to village life were stored in the parish church chest, for the simple reason it was often the most secure place to do so. Thus they have linked the villages together in the past, the present and hopefully the future.

Oulton Chapel
Not a typical parish church, rather an 18th century non-conformist place of worship
Well worth a visit and more details can be found on the parish council website here...

Also on Simon Knott's Norfolk Churches website

A great idea that is remembered each year at the Box Day celebration with photos adorning the main tent of all those who have come to live in the village since at least the early 2000s, including a traveller and his dog who camped up on the roadside for a while. As I said Oulton is a dispersed village, spread out here and there and so I did have trouble finding the celebration, but in many ways it has a far greater sense of community than many a 'traditional' village!

Thanks to Zoe for inviting me and everyone else who enjoyed a good tale!