Flitch of bacon custom a flitch of bacon tradition at the Abbey of St Melaine, Rennes, Brittany, where the bacon is said to have hung for six centuries without being claimed. In Vienna, there was a similar tradition in which the prize was a ham of bacon rather than a flitch. The ham was hung over the city gate, from where the winner was expected to climb up and remove it himself. One such winner had the prize revoked after winning it, after he inadvertently let slip that his wife would rebuke him for staining his coat while bringing down the ham. Historian Hélène
Flitch of bacon custom by John and Susan Gilder. The couple had given due notice of their claim and were accompanied by a large crowd of onlookers. However, the lord of the manor had ordered that the ceremony should not take place, and the gates of the Priory were nailed shut to prevent it. By 1809 the tradition was definitely abolished. A further attempt to claim the flitch was made in 1832 by Josiah Vine, a retired cheesemaker, who travelled with his wife from Reading to make his claim. He too was refused a trial by a very unsympathetic Steward of Little Dunmow. "John