Royal Shrovetide Football - A Brief History of The Shrovetide Ball Game

A Brief History of The Shrovetide Ball Game

The earliest recorded Shrovetide ball game comes during the High Middle Ages (1066–1272) from the cleric William Fitzstephen in his description of London Descriptio Nobilissimi Civitatis Londoniae c.1174-1183. The game he described was played at Carnival, an alternative name for Shrovetide, from the Latin Carnilevaria a word variant of carne levare meaning to "leave out meat" an act of abstinence for Lent. Then as now games were played in the afternoon. His account suggests playing ball at Carnival had been an annual event for at least a generation.

…"every year on the day called Carnival—to begin with the sports of boys (for we were all boys once)—scholars from the different schools bring fighting-cocks to their masters, and the whole morning is set apart to watch their cocks do battle in the schools, for the boys are given a holiday that day. After dinner all the young men of the town go out into the fields in the suburbs to play ball. The scholars of the various schools have their own ball, and almost all the followers of each occupation have theirs also. The seniors and the fathers and the wealthy magnates of the city come on horseback to watch the contests of the younger generation, and in their turn recover their lost youth: the motions of their natural heat seem to be stirred in them at the mere sight of such strenuous activity and by their participation in the joys of unbridled youth".

The location given for the "suburbs" was to the north of London. The area described of open fields and rivers is typical of the terrain still used for current games played in Ashbourne and in Workington, Cumbria where "Uppies and Downies" games take place on Good Friday, Easter Tuesday and Easter Saturday.

…"Everywhere outside the houses of those living in the suburbs, and adjacent to them, are the spacious and beautiful gardens of the citizens, and these are planted with trees. Also there are on the north side pastures and pleasant meadow lands through which flow streams wherein the turning of mill-wheels makes a cheerful sound"….

Although the names of the schools that participated were not stipulated, a previous reference to St. Paul's, Holy Trinity, Aldgate and St. Martin-le-Grand College indicates these Church schools were integral to celebrating this holy-day.

…"St. Paul, the church of the Holy Trinity, and the church of St. Martin have famous schools by special privilege and by virtue of their ancient dignity. But through the favour of some magnate, or through the presence of teachers who are notable or famous in philosophy, there are also other schools"….

By the Late Middle Ages (1272–1485) there were many incarnations of the ball game being played at Shrovetide, Eastertide and Christmastide in and around the British Isles. All were played in a similar manner with localized innovations. Some of the better understood games a few of which are still played include the Ba' game (abbreviation of Ball), Ball Game (Atherstone), Ball Game (Sedgefield), Bottle-kicking (usually a leather bottle substitute ball), Caid (Irish name for various ball games and an animal-skin ball), Camp-ball (early organized from late medieval includes 'kicking camp'), Cornish hurling ('Hurling to country' & the more organized 'Hurling to goals'), Cnapan (Old Welsh name for the game and wooden ball used), Foot-ball (early organized from late medieval), Football (Masonic ceremonial), Haxey Hood ('Hood' name given to a leather tube used instead of a ball), La soule (French: 'soule' name given to the game and the ball) and Scoring the Hales (an alternative name for goals used in Cumbria and the Scottish boarders). A contemporary collective term coined for these games is "Mob football." During the early modern period "Public Schools" (schools open to the paying public, an alternative to private home education) adopted the ball game as a sports activity. The version they developed was called football played using a bladder inflated ball. Scholars from these schools wrote the first standard codes for football which inspired the development of modern codes of football.