See some of Eccentric Britain, for example
Every January, the parish of Haxey goes a little crazy for the day. They play a mad game called the Haxey Hood and have been practicing this ancient tradition since the 14th Century. It's one of the oldest local tradition in England.
The Haxey Hood is a kind of huge rugby game without too many rules, where a leather tube is slowly “walked” or should we say “swayed” or “gently persuaded” by a large unorganised rugby scrum to 1 of 4 pubs in the village, quite competitivly, where it remains until the following year's game and of course each of the pubs’ regular customers want to win for the prestige awarded.
Haxey Hood Fool in 2004
The official story is that in the 14th century, Lady de Mowbray, wife of an Isle landowner, John De Mowbray, was out riding towards Westwoodside on the hill that separates it from Haxey. As she went over the hill her silk riding hood was blown away by the wind. Thirteen farm workers in the field rushed to help and chased the hood all over the field. It was finally caught by one of the farm workers, but being too shy to hand it back to the lady, gave it to one of the others to hand back to her. She thanked the farm worker who had returned the hood and said that he had acted like a Lord. Whereas the worker who had actually caught the hood was a Fool. So amused was she by this act of chivalry and the resulting chase, that she donated 13 acres of land on condition that the chase for the hood would be re-enacted each year. This re-enactment over the centuries has become known as "The Haxey Hood".
At the end of the competition, the Haxey Fool makes a speech, the Fool always finishes with the traditional words that the crowd chant along with him. They are:
"Hoose agen hoose, toon agen toon, if tha meets a man nok im doon, but doant ‘ot im"
(This translates as: House against House, Town against Town, if you meets a man, knock him down but don’t hurt him.)
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