Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football
Up'ards and Down'ards play a two-day game of football across three miles of town and river, goals set at old mills.
A handsome, well-stocked Georgian market town on the Peak District doorstep, with genuine independent character, a CAMRA-recognised beer scene, a Michelin-listed hotel, and enough cafes, pubs and a weekly market to fill a day without any effort.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
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"One of the last Derbyshire wells dressed entirely in the old way with no nails or glue, just clay boards pressed petal by petal, blessed with a service and kept up for five days."
Barlow Well Dressing
"An annual one-day agricultural show in the southern Peak District gateway town of Ashbourne, celebrating local livestock, rural skills and Derbyshire farming heritage."
Ashbourne Show
"A full week of Derbyshire village carnival life with well dressings, a flower festival, a scarecrow competition and then the spectacular Saturday parade of floats, fancy dress and Carnival Royalty through the village, followed by classic cars, alpacas and children's entertainment on the recreation ground."
Barlow Carnival
"The plague village dresses its wells in late August, the same clay and petal craft as its neighbours, in a place that carries more history per cottage than almost anywhere in England."
Eyam Well Dressing
"One of the highest-altitude well dressings in Derbyshire, Taddington's boards are dressed and displayed in a windswept limestone plateau village above the Wye Valley."
Taddington Well Dressing
"One of Derbyshire's most tranquil well dressings appears in this small hamlet near Miller's Dale each August, where the petal-and-clay panel stands in one of the quietest and most beautiful corners of the White Peak."
Wormhill Well Dressing
"The Staffordshire County Showground organises district ploughing and hedgelaying matches each autumn, and the Eccleshall round draws competitors from across the county to farmland around one of Staffordshire's quieter market towns for a full day of working countryside skills."
Eccleshall District Ploughing and Hedgelaying Match
"A Northamptonshire village green, hundreds of competitors in silly hats, one conker on a string. The 61st running of the most earnest competition you will ever attend in a field."
World Conker Championships
Villagly Award · Toughest Nut in the UK ✦ Weird and Wonderful"A vast rolling rugby scrum, the sway, pushes a leather hood to one of four pubs, a custom said to be 700 years old."
Haxey Hood
✦ Weird and Wonderful"A huge leather ball is fought over along Long Street for two hours, a Shrove Tuesday game dating to 1199."
Atherstone Ball Game
✦ Weird and Wonderful"After a hare pie is scrambled, two villages battle to carry small barrels across streams in a no-rules contest."
Hallaton Bottle Kicking and Hare Pie Scramble
✦ Weird and Wonderful"A sailing regatta with roots going back to 1837, combining competitive racing on the water with a Marching Carnival, live music, and a Pink Wig Parade ashore."
Falmouth Week