The Cotswold Olimpick Games

Sometimes, when researching ideas for a novel online, you come across something so strange and unfamiliar that you have to check it is not a hoax. While researching Cotswolds topics for my latest novel, Conditions Are Different After Dark, I discovered Robert Dover’s Cotswold Olimpick Games.

The Olimpick Games were founded in the early 17th century by Robert Dover. His intention was to channel the competitive energy of local people into healthy pursuits, a policy endorsed by James the First, who was conscious of the need for a fit, strong, athletic and skilled population from which to recruit troops whose bodies would be better conditioned for war if they were enlisted. Dover was a prominent figure at the event, dressed in a long cloak and a large hat with a ceremonial sword attached to a yellow baldric hung from his shoulder, his decked in yellow ribbons.

During the English Civil Wars, the games were suspended, then revived after the Restoration. They continued until, in 1862, revived briefly for the Festival of Britain and again in the late 1960s. Since then, they have been held continuously and have grown.

Some events, such as running, wrestling, jumping, archery and hammer throwing, were based on the original Greek Olympic sports and were chosen to reflect King James’s preferences. Others were more aggressive: shin-kicking and ‘cudgel-play’ (yes, really), wrestling, running at the quintain, jumping, casting the bar and hammer, handball, gymnastics and horse racing. There was also dancing and games of chess and cards. 

James argued that sports were good for the general population. He maintained that people needed recreation on their days off. And if they were busy exercising, they were kept out of the taverns and out of trouble. He produced what is commonly known as the Book of Sports,

In my novel, I have changed the event title to the Restoration Games and moved the date from Whitsun to Midsummer’s Day. Dovers Hill has been renamed Drovers Hill. It is here that the story reaches a dramatic conclusion.

The cover of Conditions Are Different After Dark incorporates the Olimpick Games woodcut in the background.