If you are one of those dreary people wondering how much all those Bank Holidays last month cost the economy, spare a thought for the inhabitants of Oxfordshire of previous centuries. Before the industrial revolution — and of course long before the era of mass entertainment — the month of May was merry indeed, with holidays galore, and celebrations such as we still see in Oxford on May Day, going on somewhere in the county most of the time.

One reason for this was that Whitsun often fell fairly near May Day — and celebrations involving dancing round the maypole, singing and much drinking, tended to last several days and to overlap each other. Then, at least for a century or two after 1660, there was also Oakapple Day — when everyone commemorated the restoration of Charles II on his birthday, May 29, with more of the same.

The holy day of White Sunday (Whitsun), followed by the public holiday of Whit Monday, was held on the seventh Sunday after Easter to mark the festival of Pentecost — when the (white) Holy Spirit descended on to Christ’s disciples. It remained a moveable feast until 1971 when it was replaced by the more prosaic Late Spring Bank Holiday, always on the last Monday in May.

In Oxford, until the early 18th century, Whitsun was marked in a particularly odd way called ‘Bringing in the Fly’, first mentioned in the Register of the University of 1463 (and even then as an old custom). It involved the cooks of the colleges dressing up in finery way above their station and riding out to St Bartholomew’s Chapel, off the Cowley Road, on horses borrowed from their employers, to bring back a crane fly — or some say a Mayfly or even a butterfly, colloquially known as Sir Cranion.

The ride of the ‘plump society’ — as it was called — became a byword for rowdy and drunken behaviour. In the play Bartholomew Fair, Ben Jonson (1572-1637) refers to a character as looking “like one that was made to catch flies, with his Sir Cranion legs”.

No one knows quite why this extraordinary custom took place, but I learned from Christine Bloxham’s May Day to Mummers, Folklore and Traditional Customs in Oxfordshire (The Wychwood Press 2002) of a play performed in 1602 at St John’s College, in which the following appears: “Some say that a maid coming to town with butter was met by a cook and by him deceived in a wood adjoining, whose laments the dryades and hamadryades of the place, pitying, turned her into a butterfly; and ever since the cooks are bound to this anniversary celebration of her metamorphosis.”

The Bringing in the Fly ritual may be an example of a ceremony moved from May Day to later in the month, in order not to concentrate too much rowdiness on one day. Certainly, the singing on top of New College tower (pictured) , also followed by a march to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, was moved for that reason.

The 17th-century Oxford historian Anthony Wood wrote that the date was changed to Ascension Day because: “Magdalen men and the rabble of the town came on May Day to their disturbance”.

Meanwhile, out in the Oxfordshire countryside, life was no quieter at Whitsuntide. In the Royal Forest of Wychwood for instance, in the west of the county (sadly disafforested in 1857) there was the Whit Hunt, performed on Whit Monday but anticipated weeks ahead in Witney and outlying villages, with processions complete with hunting horns made of willow bark. Three deer were killed during the hunt and it was a huge honour to be in at the death. Anyone not hunting was as likely as not to be either dancing round a maypole or fighting — for this was the season to settle grudges, either in person or by employing a village champion.

The festival or ‘Ale’ lasted a week, then the venison was cooked and eaten with Morris dancers in attendance.

Around Burford the hunt was suspended in 1593 following an outbreak of plague, but Queen Elizabeth I nevertheless gave the town a brace of bucks, and the tradition of disorderly hunting and feasting carried on into the 19th century, even after the disafforestation.

As for any loss to the economy caused by all this junketing about, most people agreed it improved matters. After all plenty of beer was sold. And as for official Bank Holidays, they were only introduced by the Bank Holidays Act of 1871.