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The Cotswold Olimpick Games is an annual public celebration of games and sports now held on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday near
Chipping Campden Chipping Campden is a market town in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its terraced High Street, dating from the 14th century to the 17th century. ("Chipping" is from Old English ''cēping'', 'market', 'market- ...
, in the
Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of J ...
of England. The games likely began in 1612 and ran (through a period of discontinuations and revivals) until they were fully discontinued in 1852. However, they were revived in 1963 and still continue as of 2020. The games originated with a local lawyer, Robert Dover, with the approval of
King James I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...
. Dover's motivation in organising the games may have been his belief that physical exercise was necessary for the defence of the realm, but he may also have been attempting to bring rich and poor together; the games were attended by all classes of society, including royalty on one occasion.


Events

Events included horse-racing,
coursing Coursing by humans is the pursuit of game or other animals by dogs—chiefly greyhounds and other sighthounds—catching their prey by speed, running by sight, but not by scent. Coursing was a common hunting technique, practised by the nobility, ...
with hounds, running, jumping, dancing, sledgehammer throwing, fighting with swords and
cudgel A club (also known as a cudgel, baton, bludgeon, truncheon, cosh, nightstick, or impact weapon) is a short staff or stick, usually made of wood, wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times. There are several examples of blunt-force trauma caused ...
s, quarterstaff,
shin-kicking Shin-kicking, also known as shin diggings or purring, is a combat sport that involves two contestants attempting to kick each other on the shin in order to force their opponent to the ground. It has been described as an English martial art, an ...
, and wrestling. Booths and tents were erected in which games such as chess and cards were played for small stakes, and abundant food was supplied for everyone who attended. A temporary wooden structure called Dover Castle was erected in a natural amphitheatre on what is now known as Dover's Hill, complete with small cannons that were fired to begin the events. The games took place on the Thursday and Friday of the week of
Whitsun Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian High Holy Day of Pentecost. It is the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the ...
, normally between mid-May and mid-June. Many 17th-century
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
s disapproved of such festivities, believing them to be of pagan origin, and they particularly disapproved of any celebration on a Sunday or a church holiday such as Whitsun. By the time of King James's death in 1625, many Puritan landowners had forbidden their workers to attend such festivities; the increasing tensions between the supporters of the king and the Puritans resulted in the outbreak of the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...
in 1642, bringing the games to an end. Revived after the Restoration, the games gradually degenerated into a drunk and disorderly country festival according to their critics. The games ended again in 1852, when the
common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has ...
on which they had been staged was partitioned between local landowners and farmers and subsequently enclosed. Since 1966, the games have been held each year on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday. Events have included the
tug of war Tug of war (also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war, rope pulling, or tugging war) is a sport that pits two teams against each other in a test of strength: teams pull on opposite ends of a rope, with the goal being to bring the rope a certa ...
,
gymkhana Gymkhana () ( ur, جِمخانہ, sd, جمخانه, hi, जिमख़ाना, as, জিমখানা, bn, জিমখানা) is a British Raj term which originally referred to a place of assembly. The meaning then altered to den ...
,
shin-kicking Shin-kicking, also known as shin diggings or purring, is a combat sport that involves two contestants attempting to kick each other on the shin in order to force their opponent to the ground. It has been described as an English martial art, an ...
, dwile flonking, motorcycle scrambling, judo, piano smashing, and
morris dancing Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may ...
. The
British Olympic Association The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...
has recognised the Cotswold Olimpick Games as "the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings".


Origins

The first event was likely held in 1612, organised by lawyer Robert Dover, although different sources give dates from 1601 until 1612. Little is known about Dover. He was probably born between 1575 and 1582 in
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...
, one of four children born to John Dover, and may have been admitted to
Queens' College Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light sid ...
at
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
in 1583, leaving early to avoid swearing the
Oath of Supremacy The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in England to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Failure to do so was to be treated as treasonable. The Oath of Supremacy was or ...
. Dover was admitted to
Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...
on 27 February 1636, and was probably called to the bar in 1611, the same year he likely moved to Saintbury, near
Chipping Campden Chipping Campden is a market town in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its terraced High Street, dating from the 14th century to the 17th century. ("Chipping" is from Old English ''cēping'', 'market', 'market- ...
, with his wife and children. It is unclear whether Dover began the games from scratch, or took over from an existing event, perhaps a church ale. The games had the approval of King James, who in his book of advice to his son, ''
Basilikon Doron The ''Basilikon Doron'' is a treatise on government written by King James VI of Scotland (who would later also become James I of England), in 1599. Background ''Basilikon Doron'' (Βασιλικὸν Δῶρον) means "royal gift" in Ancient G ...
'' (1599), had written that to promote good feeling among the common people towards their king, "certain days in the year would be appointed, for delighting the people with public spectacles of all honest games, and exercise of arms". Although there was at that time in England a growing admiration for the ancient Greeks, Dover may have been motivated by military rather than cultural considerations. His biographer, Christopher Whitfield, claimed that Dover combined ancient countryside practices with "classical mythology and Renaissance culture, whilst linking them with the throne and the King's Protestant Church". Dover believed that physical exercise was necessary for the defence of the kingdom. He may also have believed that the games would bring rich and poor together, increasing social harmony, an ideal that might explain why the event captured the public imagination; the poetry of the period eulogises the games as "an occasion of social harmony and communal joy".
Endymion Porter Sir Endymion Porter (1587–1649) was an English diplomat and royalist. Early life He was descended from Sir William Porter, sergeant-at-arms to Henry VII, and son of Edmund Porter, of Aston-sub-Edge in Gloucestershire, by his cousin Angela ...
, a member of the court of King James, had an estate in the village of Aston-sub-Edge, close to Dover's home. Dover acted as Porter's legal agent between 1622 and 1640, and through him James sent some of his own clothes to Dover, "purposely to grace him and consequently the solemnity f the g. James may also have granted Dover a coat of arms, with the motto "Do Ever Good", as claimed by Dover's grandson, a claim that was rejected by the heraldic authorities in 1682. The ''Annalia Dubrensia'' (Annals of Dover), a collection of poems praising Dover and his achievements in promoting and managing the games, was published in 1636. The contributors included well-known poets such as
Michael Drayton Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. He died on 23 December 1631 in London. Early life Drayton was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothin ...
,
Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
, Thomas Randolph, and
Thomas Heywood Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece '' A Woman Killed with Kindness'', ...
. They saw the games as revitalising traditional English social life, and they countered opposition from the critics of such events, who complained of "drunken behaviour and sexual licence", by stressing the "peaceful and well-behaved" nature of the occasion, and even praising the games as "a gesture of loyalty to the king". The games had acquired their title of "Olimpicks" by the time the ''Annalia Dubrensia'' was published, a name approved of by Dover. It secularised the proceedings, while adding an air of gentrification to the sports by linking them with the
Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
of ancient Greece. Having been brought up in a Catholic family, Dover might well have been keen not to draw attention to religion, particularly if the games had taken over from an earlier church ale.


Proceedings

The games took place in a natural amphitheatre on what is known today as Dover's Hill, then called Kingcombe Plain, above the town of
Chipping Campden Chipping Campden is a market town in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its terraced High Street, dating from the 14th century to the 17th century. ("Chipping" is from Old English ''cēping'', 'market', 'market- ...
, in Gloucestershire. They were held on the Thursday and Friday of Whit-Week, or the week of
Whitsun Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian High Holy Day of Pentecost. It is the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the ...
, which normally fell between mid-May and mid-June. Dover presided over the games on horseback, dressed ceremonially in a coat, hat, feather and ruff, donated by King James. Horses and men were decorated with Dover's favours, yellow ribbons pinned to a hat or worn around the arm, leg, or neck. Tents were erected for the
gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest c ...
, who came from the surrounding counties of
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...
,
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...
and
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
, and food was supplied in abundance. The poet Nicholas Wallington wrote that: A temporary wooden building was constructed each year, called Dover Castle, from which gunfire salutes were sounded during the competitions. Competitors were summoned to the hillside by the sound of a hunting horn, to take part in various sports. Mounted cannons were fired to begin the events, which included horse-racing, coursing with hounds, running, jumping, dancing, sledgehammer throwing, fighting with swords and cudgels,
quarterstaff A quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves), also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European pole weapon, which was especially prominent in England during the Early Modern period. The term is generally accepted to refer t ...
, and wrestling. Prizes included silver trophies for the mounted sports, and perhaps also money for the other events. The contests were refereed by officials called sticklers, from which the phrase "a stickler for the rules" is derived. Sticklers were so-named because they carried sticks, with which to safely separate two fighting swordsmen. No scores or times are recorded for any of the events. Portable watches of the time were "rare, costly, and relatively unreliable devices", but perhaps just as importantly "nobody in Dover's time was much interested in sports record-keeping or record-breaking". Visitors from all strata of society attended, from agricultural labourers to the nobility, some of whom travelled up to to attend the games.
Prince Rupert Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 (O.S.) / 27 December (N.S.) – 29 November 1682 (O.S.)) was an English army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist caval ...
attended in 1636.


Other diversions

A harper dressed as the Greek poet
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
entertained the crowds, enhancing the classical Olympic theme. There was also a maze, known as a Troy Town, constructed from piled up turf with walls about high, through which villagers would dance. Various games were played for small stakes in booths and tents, including chess, Irisha game similar to
backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...
and card games such as cent, a game like
piquet Piquet (; ) is an early 16th-century plain-trick card game for two players that became France's national game. David Parlett calls it a "classic game of relatively great antiquity... still one of the most skill-rewarding card games for two" but ...
. King James approved of card games "when you have no other thing ado ... and are weary of reading ... and when it is foul and stormy weather", but he considered chess to be "too obsessive a game". The games ended with a grand firework display, centred on the castle.


Controversy

In the 17th century many
Puritans The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
believed that the slightest action might lead to sin, and even to
Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
if it was not repented. They frowned on festivities such as the games as being of pagan origin, promoting immorality and drunkenness, and disapproved of any celebration on a church holiday such as Whitsun. A Puritan revolt over a 1627 "Bringing in the May" festival at
Mount Wollaston Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 101,636, making ...
in present-day
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
resulted in the expulsion of its organiser from the colony. King James, on the other hand, viewed Puritanism as a challenge to the authority of the monarch. The fine clothes donated by the King, which Dover wore when he presided over the games, were not just a fashion statement, but also a political one. The feather in Dover's hat was a "flag of defiance to virtue" in Puritan eyes, and even the starch probably used in the washing of his ruff was evil, according to the Puritan writer
Philip Stubbes Philip Stubbs (Stubbes) (c. 1555 – c. 1610) was an English pamphleteer. Life Stubbs was born about 1555. He was from Cheshire, possibly the area near Congleton. According to Anthony Wood, he was educated at Cambridge and subsequently at Oxford, ...
. He described starch as " certain kind of liquid matter ... wherein the Devil hath learned them on-Puritansto wash and die their ruffs". James was succeeded by King
Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...
in 1625. The new king reluctantly consented to an Act of Parliament "for punishing divers abuses on the Lord's Day, called Sunday". The Act restricted the activities that were allowed to take place on a Sunday, and prohibited any meetings of people outside their own parishes on Sunday. Many Puritan landowners went even further, forbidding their workers to attend any church ales, culminating in two Somerset circuit judges ruling in 1632 that "all public ales be henceforth utterly suppressed". The following year Charles reversed the judges' ruling of 1632. He produced a new version of James's ''
Book of Sports The ''Declaration of Sports'' (also known as the ''Book of Sports'') was a declaration of James I of England issued just for Lancashire in 1617, nationally in 1618, and reissued by Charles I in 1633. It listed the sports and recreations that were ...
'', which he ordered to be read in every church. In it he wrote: The outbreak of the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...
in 1642 brought the games to an end.


First revival, 1660–1850

The games were revived at some uncertain date after the Restoration of 1660. Dover had died in 1652, and bereft of his influence, the games became "just another drunken country festival", according to an account written by the poet
William Somervile William Somervile or Somerville (2 September 167517 July 1742) was an English poet who wrote in many genres and is especially remembered for "The Chace", in which he pioneered an early English georgic. Life Somervile, the eldest son of a long es ...
in 1740. By then the games, known as Dover's Meeting, were well established and once again quite popular, and included events such as
backsword A backsword is a type of sword characterised by having a single-edged blade and a hilt with a single-handed grip. It is so called because the triangular cross section gives a flat back edge opposite the cutting edge. Later examples often have a ...
fighting. It is unclear whether the contestants fought with metal or wooden swords, but there is no doubt that very real danger was involved. During a fight at the beginning of the 19th century, one of the contestants was so badly injured that he died soon afterwards. The wrestling competitions had become shin-kicking contests, with competitors wearing heavily nailed boots, sometimes with pointed tips. The poet and writer
Richard Graves Richard Graves (4 May 1715 – 23 November 1804) was an English cleric, poet, and novelist. He is remembered especially for his picaresque novel ''The Spiritual Quixote'' (1773). Early life Graves was born at Mickleton Manor, Mickleton, Glouce ...
described the games in his
picaresque novel The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corru ...
''The Spiritual Quixote'' (1773) as a "heathenish assembly". Somervile's account of the 1740 games describes a general riot in which "chairs, and forms, and battered bowls are hurled/With fell intent; like bombs the bottles fly". Graves dramatised the enthusiasm for the women's race for a Holland shift displayed on a pole: "six young women began to exhibit themselves before the whole assembly, in a dress hardly reconcilable to the rules of decency". By 1845 the games were being organised by a local publican, William Drury, who paid £5 for the right to do so. He hired out space for stalls and booths, and presumably sold alcohol at the event. The rector of Weston-sub-Edge, the parish in which Dover's Hill is located, Reverend Geoffrey Drinkwater Bourne, claimed that up to 30,000 people were attending the games by then, and that the hillside was full of drunk and disorderly individuals. Bourne also claimed that: Such accounts may have been exaggerated however, as there are few reports of police being called to the games, and no court records of prosecutions for drunkenness or fighting. The staging of the games depended on the existence of a suitably large area of
common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has ...
, but by the mid-19th century much of England's common land was being partitioned up and fenced off. Consent for the
enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
of the parish of Weston-sub-Edge was given in 1850, signalling the end of the games in 1852. The parish's were divided among local farmers and landowners; Reverend Bourne, who a few years earlier had complained so vociferously about the games, received .


Shakespearean connection

Some historians have suggested that the games were alluded to in playwright
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...
'', and used that as evidence to suggest that Shakespeare may have seen the games. But the allusion is not present in the
quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
edition of 1602, making its first appearance in the posthumous
First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
of 1623, edited by
Henry Condell Henry Condell ( bapt. 5 September 1576 – December 1627) was a British actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing and editing the First Folio, the c ...
and John Hemminges. It is therefore uncertain whether or not it was written by Shakespeare. The first Shakespearean scholars to make a connection between Dover and Shakespeare were
Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709  – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
,
George Steevens George Steevens (10 May 1736 – 22 January 1800) was an English Shakespearean commentator. Biography Early life He was born at Poplar, the son of a captain and later director of the East India Company. He was educated at Eton College and ...
,
Thomas Warton Thomas Warton (9 January 172821 May 1790) was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1785, following the death of William Whitehead. He is sometimes called ''Thomas Warton the younger'' to disti ...
, and
Edmond Malone Edmond Malone (4 October 174125 May 1812) was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare. Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first p ...
; historian Jean Wilson has commented that it required "quite imaginative leaps such as a hill referred to by Bolingbroke ing_Henry_IV_of_England.html" ;"title="Henry_IV_of_England.html" ;"title="ing Henry IV of England">ing Henry IV of England">Henry_IV_of_England.html" ;"title="ing Henry IV of England">ing Henry IV of Englandbeing the hill on which the games were held". More recently, the historian and secretary of the Robert Dover's Games Society, Francis Burns, has suggested that the wrestling scene in ''As You Like It'' "reflects the wrestling at the Games". Although Shakespeare may have been acquainted with Robert Dover, there is no evidence that he ever attended the games.


Second revival, 1951–present-day

Dover's Hill was bought by the
National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
in 1928, and until recently contained a monument to Robert Dover. The games were revived for the 1951
Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...
, but did not return to being a regular event until the Robert Dover's Games Society was founded in 1965. Except when exceptionally bad weather or an outbreak of
foot-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six days, follo ...
has forced their cancellation the games have been held each year since 1966, on the evening of the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday, and attract thousands of visitors. An actor dressed as Dover arrives on horseback to open the games. Events have included the
tug of war Tug of war (also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war, rope pulling, or tugging war) is a sport that pits two teams against each other in a test of strength: teams pull on opposite ends of a rope, with the goal being to bring the rope a certa ...
,
gymkhana Gymkhana () ( ur, جِمخانہ, sd, جمخانه, hi, जिमख़ाना, as, জিমখানা, bn, জিমখানা) is a British Raj term which originally referred to a place of assembly. The meaning then altered to den ...
,
shin-kicking Shin-kicking, also known as shin diggings or purring, is a combat sport that involves two contestants attempting to kick each other on the shin in order to force their opponent to the ground. It has been described as an English martial art, an ...
, dwile flonking, motorcycle scrambling, judo, piano smashing,
morris dancing Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may ...
, and, in 1976, poetry. After dusk a bonfire is lit, followed by a
torchlight procession An illuminated procession is a procession held after dark so that lights carried by the participants form a spectacle. The lights will commonly be of the same type, so making a candlelight procession, lantern parade or torchlight march. Examples ...
to the square in Chipping Campden, where the entertainment continues well into the night. The
British Olympic Association The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...
, in its successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, recognised Dover's games as "the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings". Writing in 1972, the athletics coach and sports journalist
Ron Pickering Ronald James Pickering (4 May 1930 – 13 February 1991) was an athletics coach and BBC sports commentator. Biography Pickering was born in Hackney. His father was a sign fixer. He became head boy at West Ham Secondary School (later to become ...
said: While the 2017 games did not take place due to fundraising and personnel issues, the games resumed in 2018. The 2019 games agenda included events such as a children's half mile Junior Circuit, a championship-of-the-hill race for adults and a
tug of war Tug of war (also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war, rope pulling, or tugging war) is a sport that pits two teams against each other in a test of strength: teams pull on opposite ends of a rope, with the goal being to bring the rope a certa ...
competition. The organizers also planned fireworks, a torchlit procession, marching bands and cannons firing. The 2020 and 2021 games were cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.


See also

*
Robert Dover (Cotswold Games) Robert Dover (1575/82–1652) was an English attorney, author and wit, best known as the founder and for many years the director of the Cotswold Olimpick Games. Family Robert was probably born between 1575 and 1582 in Norfolk, one of four chi ...


References


Notes


Citations


Bibliography


Drayton, Michael, et al. (1636), ''Annalia Dubrensia: upon the yearly celebration of Mr. Robert Dovers Olimpick Games upon Cotswold-Hills'', London: Robert Raworth.
* * * * *


Further reading

* * Gandy, Rob (2021), "Bold Dover", ''The Fortean Times'', FT408, (August 2021), pp. 46–50. *


External links


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Chambers' Book of Days ''Chambers Book of Days'' (''The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, Including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character'') was written by th ...
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{{featured article 17th-century establishments in England 17th century in sports Athletic culture based on Greek antiquity Cotswolds English traditions History of Gloucestershire Multi-sport events in the United Kingdom Recurring sporting events established before 1750 1612 establishments in England 1852 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 1963 establishments in the United Kingdom