Flitch of bacon custom every leap year. The oath to be taken was very similar to the one at Whichnoure, that "neither of them in a year and a day, neither sleeping or waking, repented of their marriage". The couple are required to kneel on sharp stones in the churchyard while taking the oath and a verse was chanted; Following the taking of the oath, the couple are then paraded around the town with their bacon in a noisy ceremony, much as at Whichnoure. The historical Dunmow flitch is known to have been successfully claimed only a total of six times, although there may
Flitch of bacon custom have been more that are unknown (among the possible ones there are Montagu Burgoyne and his wife Elizabeth). Three are known prior to the dissolution of the monasteries from the records of the house of Sir Richard St George, and a further three awards are known from the records of the manor court at Dunmow now in the British Museum. There was a long gap after the dissolution, but the tradition was revived by Sir Thomas May in 1701 when he became the owner of the Priory. There was an attempt made to claim the flitch on 12 June 1772