A Cornish council has agreed to make changes to a local ceremony dating back to the 16th century over health and safety concerns.
During the ancient ‘Beating of the Boundaries’ event in Helston, which began in 1585, people are lifted up and their heads are ‘gently’ tapped on stones marking the town’s boundary.
But Helston Town Council’s staffing committee recommended that lifting people was ‘no longer an accepted practice for health and safety and safeguarding reasons’.
The local authority has agreed for people to be given the option of kneeling and touching their head on the stone, or hitting the stone with sticks.
It has clarified that the new rules would not stop people being lifted, but meant council staff would no longer offer to lift children or adults ‘due to serious safety concerns raised by everyone’.
Helston said parents could still lift their children as part of the event.
According to the council, the tradition began because people used to regularly walk along the borough's perimeter to guard against encroachments.
It said this was done by taking local young boys on the route, and ‘bumping them against trees, walls or posts, so that when they grew up, they would be able to pass on their knowledge of the boundary’.
