Robert Dover’s Games
Shin-Kicking
King of the Hill
Championship of the Hill
Running Races
Tug ‘O War
History of Games
The History
These historic games were first held more than 12 centuries after the last ancient Greek Olympics and almost 3 centuries before the modern Olympic Games, which began in 1896. 2022 will celebrate our 410th anniversary and the games are still held in the arena that bears the founder’s name – Dover’s Hill.
It now also marks the end of festival season in Chipping Campden, following hot on the heels of the International Music Festival and the Literary Festival. If you’re heading here on holiday, you might as well make a weekend of it and stay for Scuttlebrook Wake on the Saturday and the Jubilee celebrations on Sunday!
Gallery of Games
A word from a friend…
"...Events come and go; the novelty passes. But Robert Dover's Games continue to attract crowds to Dover's Hill on a late May or early June evening. One may ask why and offer emotional reasons - The setting has its romantic qualities. The sound of a band, particularly a pipe band, echoing across a hillside can be haunting. Bearing a torch aloft can evoke the past. Combine all three elements in the procession from the hillside as darkness falls and one can feel part of the agelessness of ways in which people have always enjoyed themselves."
— Dr Francis Burns - A life-long friend to and scholar of The Games.
