Hello and welcome to part two this is folk festivals part one was yesterday let's crack on with it Now there was some footage that came out a few years ago. I mean it's

now there was some footage that came out a few years ago. I mean it

it shocked it shocked everyone who saw it. It was of the

royal Shrove tide football which is a game of medieval football played in Ashbourne in

Derbyshire. Now I've been aware of medieval football for a quite long time.

There was that the BBC did a documentary called Kickin and Screaming, which is about the history

of football, but it didn't start with like you know the formation of the FAA and

football being codified in the 18 in 1863 it was it they started with the sort of

medieval versions of the sport and they showed a version of medieval football that was being played in Scotland I think it was like the yuppies and the duneys and they do an encumbria

There's a Westwalian version called krapan that I remember seeing on the news in the 1980s I don't know if it's

still happening I wouldn't be surprised if it still was but the one I'm going to be talking about is the

one that happens in the Lincolnshire Village of Haxie because it comes alive in Johnny Re each year.

Normally on 12th night, Haxie is in Lincolnshire and they play Haxie Hood.

Now it's essentially a variant of folk football and it's... When say 12th night you mean the 12th night of Christmas? Yes, yeah yeah

So they reckon it's been going for about 700 years there are newspaper accounts from at least the 1830s and those

describe it as a custom of some age. There's a description published in 1815 which

marks on the prize the first person who can convey it, that's the hood, into the cellar of any public house receives

a reward of one shilling.

Now all these games, they all vary in their own sort of unique ways. Now I think the difference with the one that happened in Ashbourne in Darbyshire was that it was so violent.

So I will never forget seeing a bloke in a high-vis jacket wearing work boots kicking

someone's head in outside super-drug it is an absolutely incredible thing to

see yeah yeah yeah they're just stomping on some poor blood.

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