Cock throwing

William Hogarth's First Stage of Cruelty shows schoolboys cock throwing, though it was dangerous practice to hold the rooster while others threw at it.

Wellington appears as the cock in this cartoon depicting cock throwing from around the 1820s.

Cock throwing, also known as cock-shying or throwing at cocks, was a blood sport widely practiced in England until the late 18th century. A rooster was tied to a post and people took turns throwing sticks, or coksteles (specially constructed weighted sticks) at the bird until it died. Cock throwing was an activity traditionally associated with Shrove Tuesday. The origins of the practice are thought to derive from a traditional enmity towards the French, for which the cock played an emblematic role.

Cock throwing was a popular pastime with people of all classes, especially with children, but although widespread was less common than cock-fighting. Sir Thomas More referred to his skill in casting a cokstele as a boy. If the bird had its legs broken, or was lamed during the event, it was sometimes supported with sticks in order to prolong the game. The cock was also sometimes placed inside an earthenware jar to prevent it moving. Variations on the theme included goose-quailing (or squailing) when a goose was substituted, and cock-thrashing which involved a cock being placed in a pit where the blindfolded participants would attempt to hit it with their sticks. A Sussex variation was similar to bull-baiting with the rooster tied to a four of five-foot long cord.

In 1660, an official pronouncement by Puritan officials in Bristol to forbid cock throwing (as well as cat and dog tossing) on Shrove Tuesday resulted in a riot by the apprentices.

Cock throwing's popularity slowly waned in England, as social values changed and animal welfare became a concern. William Hogarth depicted it as a barbarous activity in The Four Stages of Cruelty in 1751, and Nathan Drake credited this in part for changes in public attitudes to the sport. From the middle of the 18th century magistrates began to deal with the problem more harshly, imposing fines for public order offenses, and local by-laws banned the practice in many places. By the early 19th century the tradition was all but forgotten, lingering as isolated incidents into the 1840s.