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In some countries Shrove Tuesday (the day of merrymaking before the rigours of Lent) developed into a ‘carnival’ that lasted several days, but in England it was only ever a half-day holiday, since it was not an official Church feast day. Apprentices and schoolchildren claimed the right to an afternoon of ‘sport’, and from at least the 15th century the most popular Shrove Tuesday recreation was ‘throwing at cocks’. This was a cruel custom that involved immobilising a cockerel, either by tying its foot to a stake or half burying it in the ground, while bystanders took turns throwing stones, tools and bricks at the cockerel in an attempt to kill it.
The successful killer received the dead bird as a prize, which might account for the custom, since Shrove Tuesday was traditionally the last day before Easter when flesh could be consumed. Sometimes referred to as ‘cock threshing’ or ‘holling at cocks’, the custom varied throughout the country, but invariably ended with the fowl’s demise.
This throwing at cocks was just one of many English blood sports in an era of casual cruelty to animals but it stands apart from others, such as bear-baiting, cockfighting and dogfighting, because it was the first to attract moral objections. As early as the 1730s letters appeared in newspapers deploring the custom, not so much on the grounds of its intrinsic cruelty but for its lack of sportsmanship. After all, the tethered or buried cockerel had no chance to defend itself, and the contest was not one of equals like a cockfight.
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