Updated 21 Nov 2007

WIRKSWORTH Parish Records 1600-1900

Return to Front Page

MENU

Last

Photo 548

Next

Taken 2007.

Taken 2007.

The Bull Ring, Snitterton.

At Snitterton, an iron ring set in a stone block is believed to be a bull ring. It dates from the time when bulls were tethered and attacked by bulldogs for the amusement of their owners. This usually took place at Wakes Week.

Julie Bunting writes:
A chain and swivel secured in a thick iron ring tethered the bull, frequently already enraged by having had pepper blown into his nostrils before the dogs were set on to him. These were trained to pin the bull by its sensitive nose, an agony often prolonged by allowing the beast to hide its snout from time to time in a purpose-made hole in the ground. The dogs were at little risk for the bull's horns had been tipped with rounded knobs.

That of Snitterton lies at road level near the junction to Snitterton Hall. It was preserved by Derbyshire Archaeological Society in 1906, when one old villager recalled being told by his father how in the evenings men from Winster, Wensley and other villages would often bring their bulldogs to be tried against the bull at Snitterton. The village formerly lay on the busy Nottingham to Newhaven turnpike and, once upon a time, had three pubs. The Snitterton bull ring was so worn by the last century that a new one was laid, its staple set into a stone 2' wide and 7' deep - which it took four horses to pull - which was sunk 2' into the ground.
Julie Bunting, Peak Advertiser, 14 Sep 1998

Dates:
Photo taken:
Size:
Source:Maureen Griffiths

Click on photo for enlargement (on CD only)
Have any more information about this photo? 
Please e-mail the author on:

Compiled, formatted, hyperlinked, encoded, and copyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved.