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Pelting Oranges
Every Good Friday, the Downs ran orange with rolling fruit.
See it clearly
- What's there
- A steep chalk bowl on the Downs
- Legend from
- 1700s to 1968
- Best time
- Easter holidays
- Tone
- Light-hearted
On the Downs ahead is Pascombe Pit, where every Good Friday for two centuries Dunstable rolled oranges down the hill.
For around 200 years, crowds gathered on Dunstable Downs every Good Friday for what was once called pelting oranges. Fruit was hurled and rolled down the steep slope of Pascombe Pit while children scrambled below to catch it, and top-hatted gentlemen made tempting targets. Bands, Punch and Judy shows and stalls joined in. No one knows how it began; one theory links Pascombe to Pasque, an old word for Easter, and to egg-rolling customs elsewhere. Rowdiness, wartime rationing and safety worries finally ended it in 1968, but the National Trust now runs a gentler version, with orange-racing tracks at the visitor centre over Easter.