Rectory Field, ox roasting spit

Ox roasting at Houghton began when Rector Bernard Gilpin (1558-1583) fed the parish poor each Sunday between Michaelmas and Easter. A bullock or hog was often roasted. In 1967 Houghton Rotary Club revived the tradition at Houghton Feast. The spit is set up in a breezeblock structure, which is of no architectural merit. But the site is recorded here because the history of ox roasting is of historic interest.