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Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne
Ashbourne's Shrovetide football match, recorded since at least 1667 and carrying royal patronage since 1922, pits two teams decided by birthplace, north or south of the Henmore Brook, in an unlimited-numbers scrum pushing the ball toward goals three miles apart across Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, with rules minimal enough that the whole town effectively becomes the playing field.
Ashbourne's Shrovetide football match has been recorded since at least 1667, though ball games of this rough, mass-participation kind have been played across England since the twelfth century, making the Derbyshire town's version simply the best-documented survivor of a once much more widespread medieval tradition.