AN ancient ceremony will be re-enacted in Wythall with a 'beat the parish bounds' ceremony on Saturday.

Setting off from the Coach and Horses pub on Weatheroak Hill, councillors and residents will walk along the village boundaries, following either a 14-mile route, which starts at 8.30am, or a shorter distance of four miles, starting at 10.30am.

The walk itself is thought to have started in medieval times when village folk walked in procession on Ascension Day to define the parish boundary.

They would stop along the route to offer up prayers for good crops.

Villagers then beat boundary marks with willow wands, sometimes also beating young boys present at the ceremony to warn them against crossing the boundaries and falling into the hands of thieves and pilferers.

Wythall councillors restarted the tradition in 1989, 50 years after the last record of Beating the Bounds in 1939 was recorded.

In recent years, the boundary walk has been rather more informal with many interested walkers joining in.