The Tichborne Dole

The Tichborne Dole in Tichborne, Hampshire, UK, 1974. This annual distribution of flour is shown being blessed by the Tichborne family priest on Lady Day before being distributed by Mr. Jonkheer, John Loudon, and a family retainer.

The Tichborne Dole is a traditional English festival of charity held in the village of Tichborne on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation. The festival is centered on the handing out of donations of flour that have been blessed by the local parish priest, from the front of Tichborne House.

The festival dates back to around 1150 and was started by Lady Mabella Tichborne who, on her deathbed, asked her miserly husband, Sir Roger de Tichborne, to donate farm produce to the needy each year. Currently, the terms of the Dole stipulate that adults from the parishes of Tichborne and Cheriton are entitled to claim 1 gallon of flour, and children half a gallon each. Photo by Homer Sykes (b. 1949), a Canadian-born British documentary photographer whose career has included personal projects and landscape photography.