Country diary: Ribbons, rituals and common rights – this pageant is now 575 years old | Nicola Chester

Hungerford, Berkshire: Behind all the top hats and ales, Hocktide is more than just a re-enactment of local folkloreThe knobbly pollarded street trees along Hungerford’s broad rural high street are maypoled with ribbons. It’s quietish, as usual. But at intervals, a small crowd in top hats, carrying oranges, baskets and beribboned poles of yellow and blue flowers, emerges from each house and enters another in turn.The pebbledashed frontage of two cottages conceals the two halves of a