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Traditions played a strong part in Elizabethan society. Festivals were important, with events such as dancing around the maypole carried on for centuries.

Ball games

Ball games also became popular during this period. Tennis emerged during Tudor times, mainly played by the upper classes. Bowls and skittles were also widely played, as was football, which was very different from today.

Football was usually played between villages, with no pitch, goals and no limit on the players. The winner was the side who got the ball to the opposite finishing line, which could be a mile away. Games were very violent and fights frequently broke out.

Cnapan

In Wales, principally Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, football was referred to as cnapan or knapan. The aim was to take the ball (called cnapan) forward by any means possible, eg throwing, smuggling, passing to the church in the opposing parish.

The other main principles were:

• two teams (from different parishes)
• gentry were on horseback, common people on foot
• no pitch, but played over a wide area
• just as in rugby, participants would assume certain positions, eg bigger men as ‘forwards’, faster men as ‘backs’
• there could be up to a thousand participants in each team