Where: Dovers Hill, near Chipping Campden

When: Friday, June 1, from 5pm till late

One of the highlights of the Cotswolds' events calendar takes place on Dover's Hill, near Chipping Campden, this evening.

Thousands of spectactors are set to flock to the Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpick Games, which has a history dating back over 400 years. The festivities return this year after last year's event was cancelled.

One of the undoubted highlights will be shin-kicking, a combat sport that involves two contestants attempting to kick each other on the shin to force their opponent to the ground.

Shin-kicking originated in England in the early 17th Century and has been described as an English martial art. It was included in the 1951 revival of the Cotswold Olimpicks, which now features the World Shin-kicking Championships.

The matches are observed by a referee, or stickler, who determines the match score in a best of three competition. Steel toe caps are now banned, and the use of straw is allowed to pad shins.

Apart from shin-kicking, Cotswold Olimpick events include 'spurning the barre' (an old English version of the Scottish tossing the caber) and tug o' war.

The evening culminates with a spectacular torchlit procession down into Chipping Campden where there is music and dancing in the Square until midnight.

Tom Threadgill, chairman of the Robert Dover's Games Society, said: "The community of Chipping Campden has stepped up and given its support to this year's games. For that we're really grateful and we hope you'll get behind the games on the night.

"Enjoy yourselves, revel in the history and bizarreness of it all, and then dance yourselves silly at the end in The Square."

Picture credit: Betty Stocker