Historically in Cornwall in the far West of Britain the months of February and March were the favoured time for the formerly universally popular Cornish sport of hurling. Hurling of course is not to be confused with Irish sport of the same name.
This mass "football" game similar in many ways to other "mob football" games across Europe and beyond, at one time gripped the Duchy like a fever, so much so that the small silver covered ball used in the game, became associated with civic pride and in places such as Penzance, the ball became part of the civic regalia of the town and was carried before the Mayor on public occasions. In fact, the ball used by the Penzance corporation is still on display in Penlee House Museum and Gallery which carries the Cornish language inscription, "Paul Tuz whek Gwaro Tek heb ate buz Henwis" paraphrased in English as "Men of Paul – Fair play is good play".
The game itself was often played across huge areas of Countryside, using church towers and notable landmarks as the “goal” or in some occasions the actual parish boundaries themselves. In many ways, to the outside world, Hurling added to the view that the Cornish were wild, violent and brutish, a common opinion in the Tudor period in particular. It seemed, perhaps, that this hard sport was a symptom of the hard “on the edge” lifestyle that many Cornish people lived, often undertaking dangerous jobs, like mining or fishing.
The West of Cornwall and the North Coastal areas were hotbeds of the hurling, with Camborne and Redruth having a particularly fierce rivalry, which on occasions ended in the death of players! In Camborne churchyard there is a grave that bares this inscription "“William Trevarthen buried in Camborne Church , August 13th having been destroyed to a hurling with Redruth men at high downs on the 10th day of August”.
Interestingly there are two forms of the game recorded in the 16th century, Hurling To Country (The game similar to that which you see at St Columb Major now) and Hurling to Goal, which was played on a pitch with "goals" and a set of distinct and strict rules. Some sports historians have looked to Hurling to Goal as a precursor to the modern game of Rugby and if you read this description by Richard Carew, in his 1602 Survey of Cornwall, you can see that there is indeed a remarkable similarity “that the hurler must deal no foreball, or throw it to any partner standing nearer the goal than himself. In dealing the ball, if any of the adverse party can catch it flying ... the property of it is thereby transferred to the catching party; and so assailants become defendants, and defendant assailants”. .
Below is a video of one famous hurling matches held at St Columb every year.