No quintessential English village would be complete without an annual tradition, and Hallaton is no exception, with its annual Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking Contest, held on Easter Monday. This ancient custom is well-documented in a display at Hallaton’s ‘Tin Tab’ museum, and on the internet, but as a brief introduction, after a series of parades around the village, the vicar distributes Hare Pie and penny loaves to the crowd before the festivities move to Hare Pie Bank where two opposing teams engage in a battle to carry ’bottles’ of beer across their boundary line in a loose fore-runner of the game of rugby. The winners then scale the historic Buttercross to sample the beer. The origins of the contest are shrouded in the mists of time, and are as hotly contested as the Bottle Kicking itself, but for present-day villagers, visitors and contestants enjoy a day of merriment.

The annual Bottle Kicking has always had a reputation for exuberant behaviour, often
caused by over -indulgence of the local ales. One parson decided to put a stop to this by banning the contest. To achieve this, he refused to provide the hare pie. The angry villagers stormed across the rectory lawns and demanded re-instatement of the ancient custom with cries of NO PIE – NO PARSON’. The villagers won – the parson asking his housekeeper to bake the pie immediately. To this day the ancient custom continues.