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Freemasonry is hundreds of years old – but one of its Crowle members helps to sustain a tradition that makes it look like a relative youngster.
It’s the Haxey Hood, the ancient game in which teams hundreds strong from pubs in two Isle of Axholme villages struggle to push a leather cylinder to their own pub in a huge scrum called a ‘sway’.
And the man linking these two traditions is Phil Coggan, right; throughout the year the D.C. of the Isle of Axholme Lodge and a member of the Isle of Axholme Chapter, but on January 6th every year the Lord of the Hood.
As Lord of the Hood it’s Phil’s responsibility to lead a 13-strong team of officials made up of him, the Fool and eleven Boggins.
The Lord and Chief Boggin are dressed in hunting pink red coats and top hats decorated with flowers and badges.
The game is played by locals, although anyone can join in. There are no official teams, but everyone involved tries to push the Hood towards their favoured pub – the Kings Arms, Loco, and Duke William in Haxey and the Carpenters Arms in Westwoodside, which won the 2026 event.
The game is won when the Hood is passed to the landlord or landlady of the winning pub standing in their pub doorway.
Legend says the tradition began when Lady de Mowbray, wife of Isle landowner John De Mowbray, was riding towards Westwoodside on the hill that separates it from Haxey.
As she went over the hill her silk riding hood was blown away by the wind, at which point thirteen farm workers rushed to help, chasing the hood all over the field. It was finally caught by one of them, but because he was too shy to hand it back, he gave it to one of the others to hand back.
She thanked the farm worker who had returned the hood and said that he had acted like a Lord, whereas the worker who had actually caught the hood had been a Fool. So amused was she by this act chivalry and the resulting chase that she donated 13 acres of land on condition that the chase for the hood would be re-enacted there every year. The Hood could well be the oldest surviving tradition in the country, since characters named in the story did exist. Records show that in about 1359 John de Mowbray, the 3rd Baron Mowbray of Axholme, signed a deed granting land to commoners.
Pictures: Haxey Hood Facebook page and Mike Rix.
