Property News · February 3, 2017

Let’s move to Ashbourne, Derbyshire: ‘A delightful town’


The two-day Royal Shrovetide football match is its annual blood-lettingWhat’s going for it? I am not a football kind of chap. I barely know my Nobby Stiles from my Cristiano Ronaldo. But, if I were, this is the kind of footy I’d like to play. Ashbourne’s Royal Shrovetide match has been played every Shrove Tuesday for hundreds of years, and employs lots of elbows and a fair amount of handball, bunting, beer and clambering through the river. The whole town plays: the Up’ards (those living north of the river) versus the Down’ards. Ashbourne’s pretty, sloping, stone streets course for eight hours a day over two days with limbs, shouting and sweaty bodies. The point is to get the cork ball to one of two millstones at either end of town. But really, it’s the taking part. The event is an annual blood-letting for the town, which, soon after, reverts to normal – antique hunters peering through windows, pavements bustling with walkers off to the Tissington Trail, the whole surreal game just a dream for another 363 days.The case against… Very little. It’s a delightful town, though pretty sleepy outside Shrovetide. The outskirts are increasingly troubled with new developments, with mixed results. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Let’s move to Ashbourne, Derbyshire: ‘A delightful town’

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