Everyone’s heard of cock fighting, but less people are aware of cock throwing. Also known as cock-shying and throwing cocks, it was slightly less popular than cock fighting, but it was still a common sight in England until the end of the 18th century.
Cock throwing was popular with both the gentry and the poor folk; even children were fond of it. It was so popular in fact, that when Puritan officials tried to ban it in Bristol in 1660, there was a riot.
The blood sport involved tying a cock to a post and throwing weighted sticks at it, called cocksteles. The object was, of course, to kill the bird. It was traditionally played on Shrove Tuesday, a day when apprentices and servants were let off the leash somewhat and allowed to have a bit of fun of their own.
Some believe the cock was a representation of the French and that the game had anti-French overtones. This comes from an edition of The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1737:
“Battering with massive weapons a cock tied to a stake, is an annual diversion,that for time immemorial has prevailed in this island. In our wars with France, in former ages, our ingenious forefathers, invented this emblematical way of expressing their derision of, and resentment towards that nation; and poor Monsieur at the stake was pelted by men and boys in a very rough and hostile manner.
Considering the many ill consequences, that attend this sport, I wonder it has so long subsisted among us. How many warm disputes and bloody quarrels has it occasioned among the surrounding mob! Numbers of arms, legs, and skulls have been broken by the missive weapons designed as destruction to the sufferer in the string. It is dangerous in some places to pass the streets on Shrove Tuesday; ’tis risking life and limbs to appear abroad that day. It was first introduced by way of contempt to the French, and to exasperate the minds of the people against that nation. ‘Tis a low, mean expression of our rage, even in time of war.”
As that passage mentions, the sport of cock throwing seems to have been dangerous for the humans as well as the chickens. This is corroborated in the Newcastle Courant in March 15th, 1783:
Tuesday se’nnight, being Shrove-tide, as a person was amusing himself, along with several others, with the barbarous custom of throwing a cock, at Howdon Clough, near Birstall, the stick pitched upon the head of Jonathan Speight, a youth about thirteen years of age, and killed him on the spot.
During the game, if the chicken had its legs broken it might be supported on sticks so that the game wouldn’t be halted by the selfish bird’s injuries.
There were a few other variations on the game. Sometimes, the cock was placed in a jar so that it was easier to hit. Other times, a goose was used instead (goose quailing or squailing). Or, cock thrashing where the cock was placed in a pit and the players were blindfolded for additional difficulty levels.
As time went on the, sport got less popular in line with society’s general view on animal cruelty. From the middle of the 18th century, the Magistrates started dealing with the problem more harshly in an effort to stamp out the barbarism. Cock throwing had grown popular in Ireland too and around the same time there was a clamp down there. In February 1750, the sovereign of Belfast signalled his intention to stop the practice, he…
…issued warrants to the several constables there to apprehend all persons who shall fight, set up, or throw at cocks on Shrove Tuesday next in the town of Belfast or within two miles thereof.
Exactly a year later, the lord mayor of Dublin, Thomas Taylor, issued a proclamation:
…the inhuman custom of throwing at cocks in the street in the capital, on the grounds that it was injurious not only to the lives of … poor creatures but [also to] the limbs of many … spectators.
By the early 1800’s cock throwing had all but died out. And I for one am not too sad to see it gone.
MORE WEIRD BLOOD SPORTS:
