Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking
Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking
Hallaton in Leicestershire on Easter Monday is the venue for two more ‘sports’ of an unusual nature - the Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking. This is basically a contest between the villagers of Hallaton and Medbourne and is thought to be very old ...
To begin with, a large hare pie made to a secret recipe is blessed at the parish church before being cut up and half of it distributed to the gathering crowd by the local vicar. This distribution is done by throwing the greasy lumps of pie into the throng, who then proceed to eat it or save it as a souvenir. To the accompaniment of a brass band, the other half of the pie is placed into sacks and paraded through the village of Hallaton, followed closely by three men holding aloft small wooden barrels which have been filled with beer and decorated with ribbons at the Butter Cross. These are the ‘bottles’. The procession then heads for Hare Pie Bank where the remainder of the pie is thrown and scrambled for, although few people bother doing this nowadays. All energy is reserved for the next part of the event - the bottle kicking.
The scramble over, the first of the barrels is thrown up three times and on the third throw the crowd kick, push and generally attempt to grab the barrel. It’s a free for all with anyone joining in. The point? Well, a bottle has to be carried over a specific location to score a goal, Hallaton’s being a stream on one side of the Bank and Medboume’s the hedge of a field on the other side. Only if the first two barrels produce a draw is the third ‘dummy’ barrel thrown up. Each ‘game’ can continue for 3-4 hours and whatever the result, the winning scorer is expected to climb the old Butter Cross (a pyramid with a stone ball on top) and drink the well-shaken beer from the winning bottle. Then it is shared around ...
This page is part of our Beginners’ Guide: British Folk Customs From Plough Monday to Hocktide.
