Local Heritage Games

Local Heritage Games of the South West of England from the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World exhibition Games People Play: Part 1 6 April – 30 September 2012

Haldon Forest Park, Exeter, Devon www.ccanw.co.uk

original research by Iain Fraser Local Historian Cheese rolling

Rituals involving the throwing of objects down hills (or over cliffs) are known to have dotted the history of the more pagan-influenced communities in Britain throughout recorded history, usually as part of a healing or exorcism.

The cheeses (7-8lb Double Gloucesters) are hand-made by Diana Smart of Churcham, using milk from her herd of Brown Swiss, Holstein and Gloucester cows. Mrs Smart is the only person in Gloucestershire still making Double Gloucester cheeses by hand, and has provided the cheeses for rolling since 1988.

The races start promptly at 12 noon, over a course of around 200 yards. It is a testament to its steepness that the fastest finishers regularly break 15 seconds for the distance, faster than world record speed on the flat.

Cheese-Rolling at Cooper's Hill, Glos. http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk Bowls 1588, Plymouth How, Devon

When the arrival of the Spanish Armada in the English channel was relayed to Sir Francis Drake, legend has it that he continued playing bowls. Drake, Vice-Admiral in command of the English fleet, is thought to have uttered the classic words ‘There is plenty of time to finish this game and still beat the Spaniards.’

His nonchalant approach to the news was probably down to the fact that Drake understood the Tamar tides very well, and knew he could not immediately do anything about launching his fleet from Devonport to engage the enemy. He lost the game, but eventually helped win the battle.

. © Reproduced with permission from the Thomas Ross Collection www.rosscollection.co.uk Chess

Chess, in its current form, evolved 1500 years ago. Old documents reveal that one of the world’s first recorded chess sets was held in Exeter in the late 1200s owned, appropriately enough, by the Bishop, Thomas Britten.

Exeter is also said to be the oldest chess club in Devon, having been in existence for over one hundred years. The Devon County Chess Association holds its annual chess congress at Oldway Mansions in Paignton, between the 2 – 8 September. This is the 62nd year that the event has been hosted at this prestigious location, and it has always been held in the same room.

Can you finish this game? Black to move and checkmates in one.

www.chessdevon.co.uk Olympic Cricket

Cricket first made an appearance at the Olympic Games, back in 1900 at the Vélodrome de Vincennes near Paris. Originally, four teams were scheduled to compete, Belgium, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands, but due to lack of interest only one match was eventually played, Great Britain versus France.

Neither of the teams was selected by their appropriate national Olympic selection committees and the French posters billed the event as ‘England v France’. The Great Britain team was made up from members of the Devon and Somerset touring club, who happened to be in France at the time. The French team consisted mainly of British Embassy staff and expatriates living in Paris, some of them builders employed constructing the Eiffel Tower.

After a pre-match consultation between the captains, both sides played with twelve men. Great Britain won the match by 158 runs, but the game of cricket has never again been played at the Olympics.

British Olympic team 1900, Photos: Topham Picturepoint Darts

Britain’s most popular pub game has its origins stretching back to medieval times. The standard numbering plan with a 20 on top was created in 1896.

The designer of the modern metal darts was a London-based Hungarian refugee, Frank Lowy who, on visiting a pub near Exmouth, inquired of his host ‘’What are those people doing, throwing things at the wall?”

On his return to London and, intrigued by his visit to the cider drinking Devonians, Lowy designed a metal dart calling it the ‘Silver Comet’. This would replace the darts which were traditionally made by the French and had wooden shafts with turkey feather flights.

Lowy patented his first design in 1937 and formed Unicorn Darts which is still trading today and recognised as the world’s foremost dart engineers.

The Queen Mother throwing one of the first ‘Silver Comet’ darts, 1937 The Hunting of the Earl of Rone

The Hunting of the Earl of Rone takes place at Combe Martin, on the north Devon coast and is seen by some that the custom is the last remnant of a medieval May Games.

Banned in 1837, for licentiousness and drunken behaviour, the Hunting of the Earl of Rone was revived in 1974. Over the four days of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, the Grenadiers, Hobby-Horse, Fool and villagers hunt through the village for the 'Earl of Rone', finally finding him on the Monday night.

The Earl is mounted back-to-front on a donkey and paraded through the village to the sea. He is frequently shot by the grenadiers and falls from the donkey only to be revived by the Hobby-Horse and Fool, re-mounted onto the donkey, and carried onwards to his fate. At the final shooting on the beach, he is not revived, but thrown into the sea.

www.earl-of-rone.org.uk Hashing

In Malaysia in 1938, a man named Albert Gispert gathered a few of his buddies for what they termed a ‘paper-chase’, a sporting game in which one member of a team, the ‘Hare’, is sent ahead and the pack follows the trail, chasing through woods and countryside. They soon became known as ‘a drinking club with a running problem’.

The trail is set out in advance, usually marked with patches of flour or sawdust on the ground. There are often false trails, short cuts, dead ends, and splits along the route. Members are typically given a new ‘hash’ name, usually in deference to a particularly notorious escapade, a personality trait, or their physical appearance. The use of real names during an event is actively discouraged.

www.hhh.org.uk Letterboxing

Letterboxing began on Dartmoor in 1854 when James Perrott, a Chagford guide, set up the first letterbox at Cranmere Pool on North Dartmoor. Originally it was just a cairn (a small pile of rocks) and the idea was for a walker to leave a message there for the next walker to collect and so on.

Letterboxers put out the boxes on the moor themselves. There are hundreds of them, some easy to find and others deep into the moor which often represent a difficult challenge. They are unlikely to be found by the casual hiker. The boxes contain a rubber stamp and a visitor’s book. When finding the box, the letterboxer will stamp her own letterboxing book and record her visit to the site with her own personal stamp.

There is even a special club for those who have found 100 letterboxes or more.

Photo: Chapman and Sons, Dawlish Site of first letterbox at Cranmere Pool, Dartmoor www.letterboxingondartmoor.co.uk Marbles

The earliest marbles were made of common stone, clay and sometimes real marble. Coloured glass marbles are mentioned as early as the 15th century in German literature and were known to have been made in Venice and Bohemia at this time.

The House of Marbles in nearby Bovey Tracey still makes and sells marbles using old Victorian techniques. Glassblowers can be seen working and there is a museum dedicated to the history of games, which also features Britain’s largest marble run.

The British and World Marbles Championship have been held at Tinsley Green, West Sussex, every year since 1932. Traditionally, the marbles-playing season starts on Ash Wednesday and lasts until midday on Good Friday; playing after that was thought to bring bad luck.

www.houseofmarbles.com Orange Rolling

The Totnes Elizabethan Society organise the Orange Races in commemoration of Sir Francis Drake, the famous naval commander. The tradition reputedly dates back to the day when Drake bumped into a delivery boy, causing him to spill his fruit basket and the contents then went rolling down the hill. The two then gave chase to the fast-moving fruit.

Entrants can be as young as 4 (a shorter, more level course is provided) and there are also races for the over 60s. Competitors must kick or throw their fruit along the 450 metre course from the Market Square but not to pick up and carry it.

At least part of the orange must be intact by the finish and there may be disputes over whose is whose! Races are arranged by age group with trophies for the winners and runners-up.

Potwalloping at Westward Ho! dates back to the 1800s, where local people ventured down to the beach to throw back pebbles that had fallen from the ridge during the winter storms. This is still performed today, but has developed into a larger event with displays, local crafts, stalls and entertainment.

This old custom involves residents of the borough of Northam, who in order to protect their grazing rights, would throw pebbles which had been washed down, back up onto the pebble ridge by the sea. The pebble ridge is an almost unique geological structure, there being only one other like it in the world. In days of old, those who possessed two hearths in their house were considered relatively wealthy and entitled to grazing rights on the Burrows. In return, they had to help restore the pebble bank after the spring tides. This restoration work became known as ‘potwalloping’.

Westward Ho! 26-28 May 2012 http://www.visitdevon.co.uk/events/westward-ho-potwalloping-festival-p278833 Pram Racing

Pram racing takes part all over the country. Many are themed events and prams are decorated or modified appropriately. Participants normally take part in fancy dress which adds to the fun & frivolity of the occasion.

In Dawlish, entrants must be over 18 years of age, because the team have to visit every pub en-route with one of team having to drink a half pint of ale, upon which they are given a token. The winner of the race is the team with the quickest time & who have collected the most tokens!

Rules of the competition state that no eggs or alcohol are permitted in the prams during the event. The Dawlish pram race takes place during Carnival Week, between 11th & 18th August this year. Many other pram races take part in villages all over Devon, look out for news in your local paper or check on the internet.

Photo: Steve Clark http://www.dawlishcarnival.com Pub Games

Shove ha'penny can be traced back to the times when it was known as shoffe-grote (shove groat), with a groat being a four pence piece, British currency up until 1856. Five coins are placed one-by-one at one end of the board and shoved up the board with the pad of the hand so as to fall between the horizontal lines.

Euchre Still very popular in Devon, Euchre is a trick-winning card game for four players in pairs with partners sitting opposite each other. Only twenty-four cards are dealt, using the Ace down to the Nine of each suit. The object is to win at least three of the five tricks - with an extra bonus for winning all five.

Dominoes The name ‘domino’ comes from the resemblance to Venetian Carnival masks known as domini, which were white with black spots. In turn, these masks were named because they resembled French priests' winter hoods, being black on the outside and white on the inside.

Pub dominoes, 1935 Pub Shooting

There are several pubs in Wiltshire where you can fire a small bore rifle in the pub without being arrested! They use real .22 calibre cartridge rounds and are legally allowed to fire at indoor targets under the firearms legislation which covers similar shooting at funfairs.

The Devizes and District miniature rifle league has been going for over 100 years. It was founded in 1906 by Staff Sergeant Gregg to improve the marksmanship of the Wiltshire Regiment that was then based in the town.

The current league has 8 teams and there are 6 premises in and around Devizes with indoor rifle ranges. One at the Lamb Inn has a 25 ft long straight metal tube with a hole at one end to fire the rifle down. The tube runs through the ladies and gents toilets with a hefty steel plate at the end to stop the bullets going any further!

Photos: Played at the Pub by ArthurTaylor Indoor rifle range, The Lamb Inn, Devizes Scrabble

During the Great Depression, an out-of-work architect named Alfred Mosher Butts decided to invent a board game. His market research concluded that games fall into three categories: number games, such as dice and bingo; move games, such as chess and checkers; and word games, such as anagrams. Butts wanted to create a game that combined the vocabulary skills of crossword puzzles and anagrams. The game was originally named Lexico, but he eventually decided to call the game ‘Criss-Cross Words’.

He studied the front page of The New York Times to calculate how often each of the 26 letters of the English language was used. He assigned different point values to each letter and decided how many of each letter would be included in the game. Butts' first attempts to sell his game to established game manufacturers were failures. He and his partner, game-loving entrepreneur James Brunot, refined the rules and design of the game, and renamed it SCRABBLE. It was trademarked in 1948.

Question: Can you use the word DEVON in SCRABBLE? Answer: Yes, it is one of a breed of small hardy cattle.

Photo: Brenna Fraser Shaldon Water Carnival

Shaldon Water Carnival is a ridiculously silly day of fun that has been going strong for 50 years. It’s a typically West Country take on Carnival, with everyone from the community pitching in and participating to make this day one of the highlights of the South Devon summer.

For the first two years the carnival crowned a King Neptune, who was usually a local fisherman. This has now been replaced by a more traditional Carnival Queen.

The competitions and races held on the Ferry Boat beach range from the wacky to the traditional, with some outstanding maritime carnival floats made locally and teamed by different groups of locals.

Photo: Marcus Redfern http://www.shaldonwatercarnival.co.uk/ Shin-Kicking

Shin-kicking, also known as purring, evolved from the sport of wrestling around four hundred years ago.

It was very popular in the South West and whilst Cornish wrestlers were happy to use their feet and legs to merely bring down their opponents, Devon wrestlers preferred a full-on frontal attack with their feet.

By the early 1800s hobnail boots and even oven-baked shoes were used by the Devonians to inflict as much damage as possible to their opponent’s shins. This shin-kicking style of Devon wrestling was often described as brutal. Cornish folk soon refused to cross the Tamar for any more Devon wrestling events.

This quaint old English sport is still carried out at traditional fayres around the South West, notably at the Cotswolds ‘Olimpics’, which takes place this year on the 1 June at Chipping Campden.

Women wrestlers in Devon c1898 Skittle Alleys

Originating from lawn bowls, skittles became very popular as an outdoor game and also an indoor pub game. Indoor alleys are usually between 24ft and 36ft long. The balls are either rolled or thrown and in some areas wooden ‘cheeses’ are thrown to knock down the pins.

The balls are traditionally made from Lignum Vitae, a very hard and durable wood, so dense that it will sink in water! Skittle alleys can still be found in pubs and social clubs throughout the South West, with many teams playing in leagues.

Nine-pin bowling – similar to the game of skittles - was introduced to the United States from Europe during the colonial era. In 1841 a law in Connecticut banned nine-pin bowling lanes due to associated gambling and crime. To circumvent the prohibition, an extra pin was added, resulting in the game of ten- pin bowling.

Wootton Fitzpaine skittle alley near Lyme Regis Tar Barrels

The Tar Barrel tradition is hundreds of years old. The exact origins are unknown but probably started after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Various alternative reasons suggested for burning barrels have included fumigation of cottages and as a warning of the approach of the Spanish Armada.

Wooden barrels are soaked with tar, set alight and then hoisted up onto people's backs and shoulders to carry through the town. A total of 17 barrels of differing sizes are lit, one outside each of the 17 pubs/hotels in Ottery.

The Hatherleigh Carnival is also famous for the Blazing Tar barrels that are pulled by a team through the streets; one is set ablaze at 5am in the morning and the other after the main procession in the evening.

www.otterytarbarrels.co.uk Worm Charming

The Blackawton Annual International Festival was started in 1984 when two locals decided to try ‘worm charming’ as a means of banishing the winter blues.

Favourite tools used to bring the beasts to the surface include questionable combinations of water, beer, gravy and sugar which contestants are required to first sample in order to prove harmless to the worms.

Each team comprises of a Charmerer, a Pickerer and a Counterer. Once all teams have found their one metre square plot, everyone begins a five minute ‘Worming Up’ – doing whatever is needed to get the worms out of the ground without digging or forking. Teams then try to charm as many worms out of the ground in the 15 minutes allocated. Any team or competitor caught cheating is duly punished by a spell in the village stocks.

Image courtesy of Nick Smith, the Worm Master www.wormcharming.co.uk