Rogationtide was a religious festival held between the Monday and Wednesday before Ascension Day, and was a period of fasting and prayer. It was accompanied by processions around the parish boundaries, and our ancestors in this procession would have recited the Litany of the Saints.
After the reformation this lost it's religious significance but the procession remained, often taking place on Ascension Day or Ascension Sunday. It became known as "Beating the Bounds" and was a way of preventing encroachment by neighbours, making sure boundary markers had not moved and were visible, and to pass on the knowledge of where the boundaries were to the next generation.
