The High Wycombe Mayoralty is unique in that the Mayor and officers are traditionally weighed every year. The Mayor of

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

, a town in Buckinghamshire, England, is chosen each year at the Annual Meeting of the

Charter Trustees In England and Wales, charter trustees are set up to maintain the continuity of a town charter or city charter after a district with the status of a borough or city has been abolished, until such time as a parish council is established. Duties are ...

. The Charter Trustees of the town of High Wycombe are

councillors A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

appointed to the Town Wards who have a

ceremonial A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular ...

role as Charter Trustees in addition to their District Council responsibilities.Mayor's Office homepage
Annually, one of the Charter Trustees is nominated by his/her peers to be Mayor of the town. The office of Mayor is apolitical and the person represents the town at many civic and

events, both in the town and at other functions outside the town/district.

Robbie Coltrane TV documentary

The 'weighting in ceremony' was shown on the first episode of

Robbie Coltrane Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. H ...

's TV documentary series 'B-Road Britain' which was aired in August 2007 on ITV1. It showed the outgoing and former mayor Darren Hayday along with the incoming mayor Valerie Razzaq.

Tolling out and weighing-in

Connected with the election of a new Mayor in High Wycombe are the customs of 'tolling out' and 'weighing-in'. The former, which ceased with the Municipal Corporation Act, arose from the behaviour of Mr. Henry Shepard in 1678 who was reported as being drunk and misbehaving himself. It was decreed that the great Bell should be rung out in testimony of his misdemeanours. So according to this ancient custom the old Mayor was tolled out by tolling the great bell on the morning of the new Mayor's election. The party then proceeded in state to Church, and afterwards a drummer who continued to drum the old Mayor out preceded the procession, although this tradition was lost at some point and only reintroduced in 1999. This was followed by the weighing-in ceremony, which took place in the bar Iron Warehouse in White Hart Street. The weighing process is recorded and the result compared to the weight at the end of the mayoral year. For each of the mayor and corporation, if there has been a weight gain in that year, the person is considered to have been gaining that weight at the

taxpayer A taxpayer is a person or organization (such as a company) subject to pay a tax. Modern taxpayers may have an identification number, a reference number issued by a government to citizens or firms. The term "taxpayer" generally characterizes o ...

s' expense; they would be jeered and booed, historically accompanied with thrown tomatoes and rotten fruit.

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em}
BBC note on the 1958 ceremony

External links

For a list of past mayors se
the Mayor of Wycombe website

Local government in Buckinghamshire High Wycombe