Home to Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpick Games, established in 1612. Shin-kicking, wrestling, the Championship of the Hill - the longest-running sporting event in England.
Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpick Games have been held on Dover's Hill above Chipping Campden since 1612, making them the longest-running sporting event in England - predating the modern Olympics by nearly three centuries. The games include shin-kicking (a full-contact sport requiring straw-stuffed trousers), wrestling, tug of war, and the Championship of the Hill. They were revived in their current form in 1951 and continue every year on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday.
The Archive documents the organisers of the Olimpick Games as Carriers. The Games Master, the shin-kicking referee, the committee members who negotiate with landowners and authorities - their annual commitment keeps a 400-year tradition in existence. Chipping Campden itself is a Cotswold town whose wool-trade wealth built the stone architecture that still defines it. The Archive also documents the keepers of its buildings - the church, the market hall, the almshouses - as part of the region's Keepers strand.
The Cotswold Olimpick Games have been held above Chipping Campden since 1612. Shin-kicking, tug-of-war, championship of the hill. One person keeps it going.