What the heck is a lek?
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
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Shrove Tuesday – a time for pancakes? No! It’s a time for
football. Shrove Tuesday was the day that new apprentices were introduced into
the Company of Marblers and Stonecutters of Purbeck. The nervous young men
would wait at the Fox Hill in Corfe Castle while a vote was taken to see if
they could pass into the Guild. After that you need a bit of fun, and the fun
was football, played with a pig’s bladder. The game ran around Corfe Castle
following the route the marble was transported. At Ower Farm the young freemen
of the Guild delivered a pound of pepper – a peppercorn rent! – for the right
to use the quay. It’s still going on today: the pepper is tipped into the water
instead, and pigs need no longer worry, as footballs are no longer made from a
pig’s bladder!
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.
The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!