Custom · High Wycombe
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Gain a pound in office and the whole town will boo you.
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The Guildhall is in the town centre and can be seen any time; the weighing is a free public event outside it once a year in May. Check the mayor's website for the date.
Here in High Wycombe, the new mayor is weighed in public every May. Put on a few pounds in office, and the crowd lets you know.
Every spring High Wycombe weighs its new mayor in public. After the charter trustees' annual meeting, the mayor, councillors and officials take turns on an ornate chair scale outside the Guildhall. The mace-bearer calls out each weight, adding 'and some more' if they have gained since last year, which earns jeers, or 'and no more', which brings cheers. The idea was to see whether officials had grown fat at the townspeople's expense. The mayor's office says the custom is believed to go back to medieval times; it lapsed, was revived in 1892, paused in the Great War, and still happens today.