Article on "Medieval football" from Surrey Comet dated 23 July 1966

WHEN SOCCER WAS JUST BORN- THEY KICKED A HUMAN HEAD

SOME experts said there would be a slow start to the World Cup. But that was before the games began, at a time when everyone had the jitters. Now, the pessimists have been confounded by the high standard of playing and the great interest the games have aroused throughout the World.
With many People, love of football is like a heady drink that deepens the emotions and heightens the Passions. Occasionally, even blood gets spilt. And that is no new development. For when soccer was only a fledgling it was a very bloody business, especially in Kingston where - some say - the game had its origins.
Did football, in fact originate in this district? Did this very English game spring up among the inhabitants of Kingston when it was "King's Stone"?

Not English

Alas, for all our hopes. It seems that the game is not English at all because football was played in China 200 B.C. Then it was the custom after the match for the winner to be feted and the "honourable principal loser" to be flogged to improve his Performance next time. The Greeks and Romans knew the game and, it is said, the legions brought it to these shores.
These districts may not have originated football, but it Is certainly true that the game, as played in Kingston Years ago, was noted for the vigour with which the participants indulged themselves. There were few rules and no holes were barred.
One tradition links the local game with the accession of Edward the Confessor in 1042. We are told that the Danish tyrant Harthacnut was beaten by the townsfolk while they were holding their "Hocktyde" sports.
The Kingstonians fell upon the hapless Harthacnut, hacked off his head and kicked he gruesome object around the town. It is believed that this was the beginning of the celebrated Shrove Tuesday football.

Similar story

That might be acceptable as a thesis. But there is also another similar story which says that in 784 a West Saxon king called Cynewulf was murdered while visiting Merton. Indeed, the Anglo-Saxon chronicle gives a lengthy account of this event. The king's retinue in Kingston went post-haste to avenge the death of their leader. After decapitating the murderer, they returned to the town and began their game, using the head for a ball. Perhaps the truth is that both accounts were substantially correct.

Whatever its origins, football has always been a major sport in Kingston, and Hocktyde football was an important annual event. The custom, however, was also known in other parts of the country as far north as Berwick-On-Tweed.

In Kingston it was customary for the "Pancake Bell" to be rung at 11am., and this was the signal for the mayor of the town to perform the kick-off from the balcony of the town hall. Using a gilded football, one side strove to kick the ball to Clattern Bridge while the other had Kingston Bridge as its target.

Played all day

Great stamina the players possessed in those days, for the came lasted until evening. Then with weary limbs and dry throats, they all repaired to the Druid's Head - the headquarters of the players. But Shrove Tuesday football was not to last for ever. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, residents complained that the game had become a nuisance, and in 1866 the Town Council passed a resolution forbidding the playIng of football in the streets and instructed the police to take action if necesary.
Meanwhile, the public schools had been taking an interest in the sport, but the difficulty was that each school had its own rules. This meant that there was always the possibility of physical retribution from an outraged team at the end of a game.

Rules made

Such a state could not continue. Soon, committees were meeting, attempting to standardise the rules. If blood had formerly been shed on the field of sport, the carnage was almost repeated in the committee room. At length, though, they managed to agree and in 1863, the Football Association was formed.
As for Kingston, the residents settled down to a more peaceful Holy Week and the footballers moved to the Fairfield. With the transition began a new chapter in the history of local soccer.

THE DAY THE MAYOR SAID NO

Kingston's annual football day held on Shrove Tuesday was always a very bloody sport, when players hacked one another or trampled upon their rivals with gay abandon. One old account says:
"two rival companies of men collect about the Druid's Head Inn and at 11 O'Clock, the Foot Ball is started. The sport continues with much spirit during the day. At 5 O'Clock the game ceases and all parties adjourn to talk of their exertions and to enter on the business of another year with a firm determination to renew their riotous sport on the anniversary of their forefathers' prowess."

The game's foundation on "their forefathers' prowess" sometimes held the players in good stead on the occasions when they were before the magistrates.
In 1790, several Kingston townsfolk were indicted at Croydon charged with riotous conduct in connection with Shrove Tuesday Football. In their evidence before Baron Hotham they claimed that they had been commemorating a former victory over the Danes.

They said the captain of the Danish forces having been slain, and his head kicked about by the people in derision, the custom of kicking a football on the anniversary of that day had been observed ever since, The indicted persons were acquitted because they were observing "an immemorial custom".

By the nineteenth century respectable residents were complaining and in 1864, the mayor had considerable doubts about performing the official kick-off. Under pressure, however, he gave way and the game that year was even more rough than usual. In the following year, the mayor refused to be associated with the game and, in 1866, the council passed a resolution banning football in the streets. Kingston was not the only scene of riotous football games. A private letter written in 1815. says:
"Upon entering Teddington, I was not a little amused to see all the inhabitants securing the glass of their front windows, some by placing hurdles before them and some by nailing laths across the frames.

Begging money

"At Twickenham. Bushy and Hampton Wick, they were all engaged in the same way. Having to stop for a few hours at Hampton Wick and Kingston, I had an opportunity of seeing the whole of the Custom, which is to carry a football from door to door and beg money.
Perhaps these begging games were offshoots of the main game in the market place. A history of Hampton informs the reader of another variation- flooding:
"Until some years ago, (i.e. about 1873) the advent of Shrove Tuesday" it says "used to be eagerly anticipated by the rougher portion of Hampton's residents, as, on that day, the ceremony of kicking the football around the parish and flooding the Lion Square, took place. There does not seem to have been much sense in this custom.
On the other hand, W.H. Biden, the author of a history of Kingston, observes that the football tradition was 400 years old. In the tangle of evidence one fact emerges - Kingston football was so rough that, in the end, the mayor had to say no.

See article in original format.