On the Sunday after St Peter’s Day the porch of Farnborough church was strewn with reeds, and a sermon was preached under the will of George Dalton, dated 1556. Local tradition held that reeds had saved Dalton from drowning. The villagers called it Reed Day or Flag Day, as Dyer reports from the Maidstone Gazette of 1859.
Reed Day at Farnborough
the first Sunday on or after 30 June · Farnborough, Kent
No longer kept
Local traditional lore affirms that Mr. Dalton was saved from drowning by reeds, and that the annual sermon and odd manner of decorating the porch are commemorative of the event.
From Dyer's British Popular Customs, p. 332. Read the original
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