Stamford bull run

A jug commemorates Ann Blades - a Stamford bull runner in 1792

The Stamford bull run, or the bull-running in Stamford, was a bull-running and bull-baiting event held on St Brice's Day (13 November) in the English town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, for almost 700 years, until it was ended in 1839.^[1] The custom dated from the time of King John. A 1996 Journal of Popular Culture paper refers to the bull run as a festival, in the academic sense of "the broader context of the medieval if not aboriginal festival calendar",^[2] though works written during and shortly after the activity's later years variously describe it as a "riotous custom", a "hunt", an "old-fashioned, manly, English sport", an "ancient amusement", and – towards its end – an "illegal and disgraceful ... proceeding".^[1][3]

At least one other such regular event survived into fairly modern times, the annual 15 August Tutbury bull-running in Staffordshire, which was brought to an end in 1788, the year suppression of the Stamford run also began.^[3] Other such events had also been held in earlier times in Axbridge, Canterbury, Wokingham, and Wisbech (see Bull running for an overview).

Origins

According to local tradition, the origin of the Stamford custom dated from the time of King John (1199 - 1216) when William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey, standing on the battlements of the castle, saw two bulls fighting in the meadow beneath. Some butchers came to part the combatants and one of the bulls ran into the town, causing a great uproar. The earl, mounting his horse, rode after the animal, and enjoyed the sport so much, that he gave the meadow in which the fight began to the butchers of Stamford on condition that they should provide a bull, to be run in the town every 13 November, forever after.^[2] The town of Stamford acquired common rights in the grassy floodplain next to the River Welland, which until the last century was known as Bull-meadow, and today just as the Meadows.

Similarly, the Tutbury run had dubious legendary noble associations, in that case to the 14th-century figure John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster

The event

The ringing of St Mary’s Church bells at 10.45 am opened the event, announcing the closing and boarding of shops and the barricading of the street with carts and wagons. By 11 am crowds gathered and the bull was released, baited by the cheering of the crowd, and (among other things) a man who would roll towards it in a barrel. It was then chased through the main street and down to Bull-meadow or into the River Welland. It was caught, killed, and butchered. Its meat was provided to the poor and as such the custom by the 1700s was supported as a charity by donations.

Seventeenth-century historians described how the bull was chased and tormented for the day before being driven to Bull-meadow and slaughtered. "Its flesh [was] sold at a low rate to the people, who finished the day's amusement with a supper of bull-beef."^[1]

Suppression and end

A painting showing the 5th Dragoon Guards heading down the Great North Road to suppress the bull run in 1839

Such an event was a time of drunken disorder. The custom was periodically suppressed and eventually ended in the 19th century. The bull-running in Tutbury, which was more violent and included mutilation of the bull, and involved folk from Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Devonshire, was ended by the Duke of Devonshire in 1788.^[3] The same year, an unsuccessful attempt (the first recorded) was made to stop the Stamford event.^[3]

The bull-running in Stamford was the subject of an 1833 campaign by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Some Stamford residents defended their ancient custom as a "traditional, manly, English sport; inspiring courage, agility and presence of mind under danger." Its defenders argued that it was less cruel and dangerous than fox hunting, and one local newspaper asked "Who or what is this London Society that, usurping the place of constituted authorities, presumes to interfere with our ancient amusement?"^[1] A rather noncommittal riot trial in 1836 tried only five men, and convicted a mere three; this inspired the town to plan an even bigger event for the next year.^[1] The mayor of Stamford – at the direction of and with the support of the Home Secretary – used 200 newly sworn-in special constables, some military troops, and police brought in from outside, to stop the bull-run of 1837, but it happened anyway. The bull and the people ran through the security line, a riot ensued, and in the end no one was killed (not even the bull, which turned out to have been supplied by or stolen from a local lord, discreetly unnamed in contemporary reports).^[1]

The last bull-run of Stamford was in 1839, in the face of an even larger force of soldiers and constables – some of the latter of whom smuggled the bull in themselves. The run was short, with the bull being captured by the peace-keeping forces quickly and without reported serious incident.^[1] Because the townsfolk were forced to bear the cost of this militia presence for several years in a row, they agreed to stop the practice on their own henceforth, and kept their word.^[1] The last known witness of the bull-running was James Fuller Scholes who spoke of it in a newspaper interview in 1928 before his 94th birthday:^[4]

I am the only Stamford man living who can remember the bull-running in the streets of the town. I can remember my mother showing me the bull and the horses and men and dogs that chased it. She kept the St Peter's Street – the building that was formerly the Chequers Inn at that time and she showed me the bull-running sport from a bedroom window. I was only four years old then, but I can clearly remember it all. The end of St Peter's Street (where it was joined by Rutland Terrace) was blocked by two farm wagons, and I saw the bull come to the end of the street and return again.

References