A rare, historically interesting and apparently previously unrecorded public notice served by the Magistrates of Alnwick in Northumberland in 1821 cau

A rare, historically interesting and apparently previously unrecorded public notice served by the Magistrates of Alnwick in Northumberland in 1821 cautioning inhabitants that the playing of football in the streets is an offence against the laws, printed by J. Graham, Alnwick, dated February 22nd 1821, and reading: THE INHABITANTS OF THE MARKET PLACE, AND OTHER PARTS OF THE TOWN, HAVING COMPLAINED TO THE MAGISTRATES OF THE PRACTICE FOLLOWED BY YOUNG MEN AND BOYS PLAYING FOOT-BALL IN THE STREETS, TO THE GREAT DANGER OF THEIR WINDOWS, AND INTERRUPTION TO THE PUBLIC. ALL PERSONS ARE HEREBY CAUTIONED NOT TO INJURE THE PROPERTY OF THE INHABITANTS, BY BREAKING THEIR WINDOWS; NOR TO OBSTRUCT THEIR DOORS, NOR FRIGHTEN THEIR HORSES, OR IN ANY WAY TO IMPEDE THE PUBLIC THOROUGH-FARES AND PASSAGES OF THE TOWN, BY PLAYING FOOT-BALL IN THE STREETS; AS SUCH CONDUCT IS AN OFFENCE AGAINST THE LAWS, AND WILL BE NOTICED, ON DUE COMPLAINT BEING MADE, BY THE MAGISTRATES ACCORDINGLY Alnwick hosts Northumberland's sole surviving Shrovetide game of festival football which was first recorded there in 1788. but with local legend dating it even earlier to 1762. Opposition to mass football on Shrove Tuesday because of damage to property in Alnwick town, and disruption to traffic on the main road leading north through Alnwick to Scotland, led to the Alnwick Improvement Act of 1822. This prohibited the street games of bull-baiting, cock-throwing, bonfires and football. The ban was not enforced, however, until after the 1827 Shrove Tuesday game when its patron The Duke of Northumberland, who had paid for the damages caused by the footballers, received a petition from residents demanding action, so His Grace consented to the future use of pasture land outside the town. A year later on the 16th February 1828, three days before Shrove Tuesday, the Magistrates cautioned that anyone playing football in the streets would be fined. The 'Notice' offered in this lot, dated seven years earlier, 22nd February 1821, gives the Magistrates few, if any, real powers or remedies. It is reasonable to conclude this is why the Improvement Act was introduced a year later. Most importantly, however, the 1821 notice gives clear evidence football had already been played in the streets of Alnwick at least twelve days before Shrove Tuesday which, in 1821, did not fall until the 6th March. Therefore, it was not only a festival game played at Shrovetide. The practice of football in Alnwick was more widespread. Furthermore, the Notice did not, despite the opportunity to do so, ban the playing of football in the streets on Shrove Tuesday less than two weeks away. Provenance: Archive of former Solicitors' to Dukes of Northumberland. Literature: With grateful acknowledgement to Hugh Hornby for his extensive chapter on the history of Shrovetide football in Alnwick, p.92-97, Uppies and Downies: The Extraordinary Football Games of Britain, published by English Heritage, 2008.