Custom
Shrove Tuesday Football
Board the windows. The ball is coming.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Ordinary town high street; museum display nearby
- Legend from
- Recorded custom (ended 1897)
- Tone
- Light-hearted
Every Shrove Tuesday Dorking boarded up its windows and the whole town fought over one ball.
For generations Dorking spent every Shrove Tuesday playing a riotous street football match. Shops were barricaded, business stopped, and the East and West ends of the town fought over the ball through the streets and over the Pippbrook until six in the evening. A drink and dinner at the Sun followed. In 1897 traders complained of the lost trade, rowdiness and damage. The local council was on the game's side, but Surrey County Council banned it. Crowds still turned out to defy the ban, the police seized the balls, and dozens of players were fined.