Marble Rolling in Carlisle

This is an excerpt from the book 40 Humourous British Traditions

In Cumberland the ability to roll a marble an exact distance is highly prized. The climax of the marble rolling season is the Carlisle Round on the last weekend of August.

The roads around the centre of the city are closed for a week before the marble rolling so that they can be swept and the distances measured. There are 10 events held on different roads, ranging from the 10-yard nudge to the half-a-mile chuck. These distances are drawn between two lines on the road.

A yellow and green line is the starting line for all the events. No part of the competitor may cross this line otherwise the starter, known as The Reiver, will call “Foul Marble” and the competitor will lose their turn and be fined five grains of barley.

The aim of the event is to roll your marble so accurately that it stops on the line at the end of the course. This line is normally eight feet long and three inches wide or ‘ye depth of a Scottish woman’s bearde” as described in the original rules of 1517.

The idea is that the competitor with a marble closest to the line at the end of the event will win the prize of a haystack. Players can knock each other’s marbles out of the way, but anyone who has a marble knocked off the line is entitled to another roll. This decision is made by the line judge or “Hadrian’s spirit level” as he’s known.