Botley Assizes
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
The joke is to ask a Botley man, "When are the assizes coming on?'* The reference is to the tradition that the men of Botley once hanged a man because he could not drink so deep as his neighbours.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Botley Assizes” mean?
The joke is to ask a Botley man, "When are the assizes coming on?'* The reference is to the tradition that the men of Botley once hanged a man because he could not drink so deep as his neighbours.
Is “Botley Assizes” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.