History: "The parish is the smallest unit of ecclesiastical and administrative organization in England"

SOGN in Danish

>> . The smallest unit of local government. Parishes became units of civil administration in the 16th century, when they were made responsible for the highways and for administering the poor law. The boundaries of civil and ecclesiastical parishes, at first corresponding, increasingly diverged with the growing complexity of local government, especially in the 19th century. The powers of the parish councils are now limited to such matters as maintaining bus shelters and footpaths. The ancient custom of `beating the bounds' (or marking the boundaries) on 25 April and the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day (the Rogation Days) is still practiced in some parishes.
<<

and the youngest choirboy is held by his ankles and hid head knocked on the boundary stone.

sort of thing you remember all your life !