Oak Apple Day Tower Captain throws the old branch down from the top of the tower and a new one is hauled to the top. Everyone is then invited to the vicarage gardens for refreshments and a barbecue. Up to 12 noon villagers wear a sprig of "red" (new) oak and in the afternoon wear a sprig of "Boys Love" ("Artemisia abrotanum"); tradition dictates that the punishment for not doing this results in being stung by nettles. Oak Apple Day Restoration Day, more commonly known as Oak Apple Day or Royal Oak Day, was an English public holiday, observed annually on 29 May,
Oak Apple Day some parts of the country as a "shick-shack") or sprigs of oak leaves, in reference to the occasion after the Battle of Worcester in September 1651, when Charles II escaped the Roundhead army by hiding in an oak tree near Boscobel House. Anyone who failed to wear a sprig of oak risked being pelted with bird's eggs or thrashed with nettles. In Sussex, those not wearing oak were liable to be pinched, giving rise to the unofficial name of "Pinch- Day"; similarly it was known as "Bumping Day" in Essex. In Upton Grey, Hampshire, after the church bells had been