Villages go to war in annual 'bottle kicking' battle on Easter Monday
Villages go to war in annual ‘bottle kicking’ battle as hundreds turn out for Easter Monday tradition to get wooden beer cask across boundary stream
- Annual event in Hallaton, Leicestershire is claimed to date back to Pagan times
- Crowds tussle over old fashioned barrels sealed closed with a wax stamp on top
The annual Bottle Kicking event has returned to Leicestershire for another year complete with bloody heads, muddy clothes and a triumphant winner holding a barrel of beer across a boundary stream.
Residents of Hallaton and Medbourne, in Leicestershire, have been competing against each other to get a wooden beer cask across each other’s boundary as part of an Easter Monday tradition.
The annual event, cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid, is claimed to date back to Pagan times.
Bottle-kicking reportedly first started when a local vicar gave poor residents in Hallaton a pie and beer every Easter Monday, which Medbourne residents subsequently took.
Crowds filled the streets and tussled over an old fashioned barrels sealed closed with a wax stamp depicting a hare.
The annual Bottle Kicking event has returned to Leicestershire for another year complete with bloody heads, muddy clothes and a triumphant winner holding a barrel of beer at the bottom of a field
Residents of Hallaton and Medbourne, in Leicestershire, have been competing against each other to get a wooden beer cask across each other’s boundary as part of an Easter Monday tradition
The annual event, cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid, is claimed to date back to Pagan times
Bottle-kicking reportedly first started when a local vicar gave poor residents in Hallaton a pie and beer every Easter Monday, which Medbourne residents subsequently took
The day begins with a parade through both villages in which locals carry a large hare pie and three ‘bottles’ – two filled with beer and a third ‘dummy’ barrel painted red and white and filled with wood.
The pie is blessed by a Hallaton vicar, before being cut apart and thrown towards onlooking crowds to scramble over the food.
In the afternoon, the bottle-kicking gets underway with no rules aside from no ‘eye-gouging, strangling or use of weapons’, while organisers keenly insist they cannot accept any liability for injury.
Each barrel is thrown in the air three times to signal the beginning of the game, before residents of each village attempt to get the barrels over their neighbours’ stream – around a mile apart.
Upon the end of the game, which often lasts beyond an hour, residents retire to local pubs.
Participants are advised to take ‘extreme caution’, but pictures on Monday showed bloodied villagers as many took to the floor to get their hands on the prestigious barrels.
A player suffers a cut to the head during the annual game of bottle-kicking in Leicestershire
In the afternoon, the bottle-kicking gets underway with no rules aside from no ‘eye-gouging, strangling or use of weapons’, while organisers keenly insist they cannot accept any liability for injury
Each barrel is thrown in the air three times to signal the beginning of the game, before residents of each village attempt to get the barrels over their neighbours’ stream – around a mile apart
Upon the end of the game, which often lasts beyond an hour, residents retire to local pubs
Crowds filled the streets and tussled over an old fashioned barrels sealed closed with a wax stamp depicting a hare
The Hallaton hare pie is shown to the crowd before the annual game of bottle-kicking in Leicestershire
The pie is blessed by a Hallaton vicar, before being cut apart and thrown towards onlooking crowds to scramble over the food
Participants are advised to take ‘extreme caution’, but pictures on Monday showed bloodied villagers as many took to the floor to get their hands on the prestigious barrels
The day begins with a parade through both villages in which locals carry a large hare pie and three ‘bottles’ – two filled with beer and a third ‘dummy’ barrel painted red and white and filled with wood
One of the ‘bottles’, an old field barrel holding about a gallon of beer, is filled before the annual game of bottle-kicking in Leicestershire
The task of moving the barrels at all became increasingly difficult as scrums broke out between the residents.
Following the game, both participants and spectators return to the Buttercross, a monument in Hallaton, where individual villagers receive recognition for strong effort before an opened bottle is passed around for everyone to drink.
This year was the second time the event has returned since the pandemic.
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