the atherstone ball game

Joining the Mayor of Atherstone at this historic event.

The game is an annual event played in Atherstone each Shrove Tuesday.  Shops in the town are boarded up for its staging, children can leave school early on the dya and the two hour game is played in the town's main street.

The original medieval football game honoured by this annual event, was held in Atherstone in 1199, during which teams from Warwickshire & Leicestershire competed using a bag of gold coins as a football.