The home to the “Haxey Hood”, a rugby-style game dating back to the 14th century, the event sees crowds from the villages of Haxey and Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire pile in to push a leather tube – the Hood – towards their favourite local pub. Estimated to date back over 650 years to 1359, the story goes that Lady de Mowbray, the wife of local landowner John de Mowbray, was riding towards Westwoodside from Haxey when her silk riding hood was blown off in the wind. Thirteen farm workers saw this and chased the hood all over the field to try to return it to her. One eventually picked it up but was too shy to approach the Lady, so he gave it to another worker who handed it back. Lady de Mowbray thanked the man who returned it, saying he had acted like a lord, while branding the first man a fool. So amused was she by the chase and the act of chivalry to return the hood, Lady de Mowbray donated 13 acres of land to the local people, on condition that the chase was re-enacted every year. The game itself is played every year on the twelfth night of Christmas – 6 January – but the build-up starts long before that.