A Gentler Medbourne Circuit

About trip

Bottle-kicking, they claim in these parts, is a sport older than football, cricket and even so-called real tennis, but whether ‘sport’ is the right term is open to question. It takes place every Easter Monday when hundreds of people gather in Hallaton to try and propel a tiny barrel (known rather confusingly as a bottle) towards the neighbouring village of Medbourne. The villagers of Medbourne, meanwhile, try to physically stop them by any means possible. And, as far as rules go, that’s about it. But bottle-kicking is just one part of the day-long celebrations which are believed to go back to medieval times (although rather typically no-one is quite sure when). The beer inside the actual barrels plays an important part in the day’s proceedings, naturally enough, as does the hare pie scrambling. The hare has long been a symbol of Easter and used to be paraded ahead of Hallaton’s procession each year. Home-made hare pie is as important as the actual bottle-kicking, although the traditional dish has variously been made with beef, veal and bacon over the years. To the south of the village the walk passes Hare Pie Bank, which records show has been a local meeting place and scene of festive and religious gatherings for many centuries. This is where Easter’s mayhem truly begins. The Order of Ceremonies. The events of Easter Monday follow a set order in Hallaton. The morning starts with the children’s parade led by a marching band, after which comes the bottle-kicking service in St Michael’s Church. The bottles and hare pie are then paraded through the village and the pie is cut up and ‘distributed’ (often thrown at the assembled mob), who move on to Hare Pie Bank to begin the contest. Like the annual Shrovetide football match at Ashbourne in Derbyshire, bottle-kicking is a rough and unruly affair, usually conducted by scrums of young men who get covered in mud and bruises. There are no set rules, no team kits, and not even any limits on numbers. The sole objective is to propel the small wooden cask to the opposing village boundary, which in Medbourne’s case is several fields away over hedges and brooks. The result is usually decided from the best of three games, and afterwards the winners gather at the Butter Cross in the centre of Hallaton. For more information on this bizarre and fascinating custom, read John Morison and Peter Daisley’s engrossing book on sale at The Bewicke gift shop and tea room, behind the Bewicke Arms in Hallaton. It’s also available from (and in fact published by) Hallaton Museum, on Hog Lane, open weekend afternoons and bank holidays from Easter to October. While you're there: Just to the west of Hallaton village is a motte-and-bailey castle, visible from the nearby lane or public footpath. Introduced by the Normans (the Anglo Saxons were not great castle builders) the ‘motte’ was a flat-topped conical mound of earth, usually topped by a wooden palisade and tower, located either inside or next to an embanked enclosure known as the ‘bailey’. Stone-built fortresses eventually superseded these earth-and-timber defences. What to look for: The Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels at Hallaton has historic links with St Morrell, a French monk (St Maurille) who became the Bishop of Angers in the Loire Valley. It’s thought that Norman settlers at Hallaton may have established a chapel dedicated to the saint, and over the centuries a local cult developed in the area. Where to eat and drink: There are three excellent pubs, which all serve food daily: The Nevill Arms at Medbourne, and the Bewicke Arms and Fox Inn at Hallaton. The Nevill Arms is situated beside a stream at the start of the walk, while the Fox Inn overlooks the pretty village pond at Hallaton. The Bewicke tea room, behind the Bewicke Arms, is open daily. There is also the Horse and Trumpet, a restaurant in an old pub opposite the church at Medbourne. Directions: Walk up Main Street and turn right on to Rectory Lane, opposite the church, which becomes a path. Go over the road at the end and up through the fields opposite. Cross a stile to continue through the yard of Nut Bush and across the field beyond, then climb over the low wall on your left to the road. Turn right and walk along the road to reach Nevill Holt. Approaching Nevill Holt walk through a grand gateway next to the intriguingly named Buffalo Lodge. Ahead is a wide, doubletree- lined thoroughfare called ‘The Avenue’. So what is at the end of all this? The answer is an impressive medieval manor house established by Thomas Palmer, and later developed by his successors, the Nevills, in the early 1400s. Palmer received a royal licence to ‘impark’ 300 acres (121ha) of arable land after the village of a dozen or so families was deserted at about that time. Between 1876 and 1912 it was owned by the Cunard family, the famous shipping magnates, and an inscription above the bay window of Buffalo Lodge reads ‘BC 1880’ after Sir Bache Cunard. The house was used until recently as a school, but is now a private home. In its grounds is the 13th-century church containing alabaster and black marble tombs of Nevill family members. Turn right at the end of The Avenue to walk past the ornate gates, then take the path across parkland to the south of the site which loops back towards the church. From here a public road, via estate cottages and the edge of a high brick wall, leads back to the main route. Turn right at the end and, where the brick wall finishes go, left through a gate to cross a wide arable field. Go through a gate and drop down through two fields, separated by Uppingham Road. Beyond a woodland strip go left, then up the right-hand side and across the top of the next field – aim for the solitary tree on the skyline. At the far corner drop down to the right to join a track. Turn left when you reach a junction on a wide farm track, and follow this obvious and easy route past a copse and down through open farmland. On your right towards the foot of the hill is Leviathan Wood, planted in 2005 by the Woodland Trust to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. The path crosses a brook, passes some farm buildings on the left, then reaches Uppingham Road. Turn right, back into Medbourne, crossing the bridge over the former railway as you do so.