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Shrove Tuesday is traditionally a day for robust sporting activity - presumably to work up an appetite for the time-honoured pancake feast. Chester-le-Street, County Durham, was the location for a particularly boisterous football game from medieval times until 1932, when it was banned. The game, similar to rugby, was played between the Upstreeters and the Downstreeters, the winners being decided by whichever half of the town the ball ended up in.
This item from the Newcastle edition of the Topical Budget newsreel (replacing an gives a pretty good idea of the scale of the event, with hundreds of players on view. And, of course, everyone ends up in the river.
Topical's cameras were drawn to this kind of calendar event, and had already captured similarly raucous Shrove football events in Ashbourne, Derbyshire ('Fiercest Football', 599-1) and Workington, Cumberland (''Uppies' and 'Downies'', 606-1).
Bryony Dixon
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Complete item (0:58)
