Ashbourne

no you've done very well here so that is a very good description of it so it did begin in medieval times there are records of it being played across england and scotland i think as well and it is still played in at least one if not two i think it's the major place that it is played is ashbourne in england it has also been played at least until the last 50 years or so in annek as well which is in thumberland in england and it is similar to what you described so it is a very early iteration of something along the lines of football or rugby Records, so we know it was played in the 12th century, but that's because we have written records, could have been played significantly before that as well.

You're right about it being played between villages.

So I'm going to mainly refer to Ashbourne here because that's the place that it's still played annually and it's still like a kind of relatively big event.

It's a bit like the Gloucestershire cheese rolling, if you remember when we covered that.

Yeah,

We learn something new every episode.

Yeah, and I think it's one way, it's a bit like the Gloucestershire cheese rolling.

People do now travel to Ashbourne specifically.

I looked up the history before we're doing this, and it The various origins are put to it.

One was that it was to do with bottle kicking in Ashbourne and the river that divides the town.

The other was that Everton and Liverpool, that the park between the two grounds was owned by Lord Derby.

And these, to me, seem to have nothing to do.

Whilst those in positions of power making these awful decisions may argue that content can still be found on sounds, that platform does not offer the same opportunity to stumble across something wonderful, by chance, whilst listening live.

This is Sean Estrada calling from Ashbourne in Derbyshire.

I can't believe that you're going to ask Radio 4 Extra.

I am in my 70s now, but my daughter is a great fan, and now my grandsons are great fans, and they're 15 and 11.

Now, he He landed at Gosport on the 29th of November.

And it was the policy that the Admiralty would not allow French officers anywhere near a major port or dockyard because they'd had their fingers burnt with senior French generals who were captured in Saint-Domingue, who were in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, on parole there and abused their parole and actually sent intelligence back to France.

So they didn't trust these officers.

While they were supposedly officers and gentlemen, the Admiralty thought, well, they might be officers, but their case for being gentlemen was rather tenuous, so they didn't trust them.

[laughs]

I mean, for myself, living in Ashbourne in Derbyshire, it's two hours 20 minutes-

Yeah

... to come here.

So this is going to be really weird if anybody actually does live in this area or knows this area because they'll be like, oh my gosh, what on earth? Esme was in my hometown like the other day.

So Ashbourne actually is the town that they used to live in, which I haven't been there in ages.

So it felt really weird to go back because I think last time Well, they moved in 2017, 2018.

So it's coming up like almost 10 years since, you know, I used to go there every summer and see them.

It looks kind of like a jelly cat, but obviously it's a dog toy, so it isn't actually.

But he loves, I was going to say, he loves his, we kind of joke, obviously, oh, hello.

We sometimes joke that he is, like a vegan dog even though obviously we do feed him meat because that's what he needs to be healthy um but we um he all of his toys for some reason are vegetables and also he likes to attack grass so um he's yeah partial to some leafery anyway um oh we found something else oh do we want butt scratches we want butt scratches instead So no, had a lovely time in Ashbourne, had a lovely time in Derbyshire, such a beautiful part of the world.

So yeah, so shout out to all my lovely friends in the Midlands.

We're now going to hear a little bit about one of the new Cliff Connection partnerships that we have here at Cliff College.

Uh, and just the other day, I was at Ashbourne One Church Circuit, where we've just launched our new partnership with them.

And, uh, here we're going to hear a little bit from their minister and their circuit steward.

[gentle music] I'm, uh, Jackie Marsh, and I'm one of the circuit stewards here at Ashbourne One Church Circuit.

And I'm Nicola Briggs, and it's my privilege to be the superintendent minister of the Ashbourne One Church Circuit.

We've had a lot of changes recently.

We've had a big development at our, um, the largest church.

Um, but we've restructured and become a one church circuit, and it's exciting to be finally, uh, moving on to, um, really engaging with our communities.