Ludlow Rope-pulling

On Shrove Tuesday the Ludlow corporation handed a thick rope, thirty-six yards long, out of a window of the Market Hall at four o’clock. The town split into two sides, Castle Street and Broad Street wards against Old Street and Corve Street wards, and pulled until one side dragged it past the set limits; the rope was bought back and the contest run again, and at last the winners sold it and spent the money on drink. A correspondent in 1826 reckoned nearly two thousand people took part. An obscure tradition tied the custom to a quarrel between the townsmen when Henry VI besieged Ludlow.