Archaic British Laws

[fluffymark]

All English males over the age 14 are to carry out 2 or so hours of longbow practice a week supervised by the local clergy.

In London, you are not allowed to keep a pigsty in the front of your home.

Any person found breaking a boiled egg at the sharp end will be sentenced to 24 hours in the village stocks.

All male orgies are illegal, although add one woman and it’s legal.

Until 1976 cab drivers were required by law to carry a bale of hay to feed a horse.

It is illegal to stand within one hundred yards of the reigning monarch when not wearing socks.

It is still an offence to beat or shake any carpet rug or mat in any street in the Metropolitan Police District, although you are allowed to shake a doormat before 8am.

Placing a postage stamp that bears the Queen (or King) upside down is considered treason.

A Member of Parliament must not enter the House of Commons wearing a full suit of armour.

Committing suicide is classified as a capital crime – punishable by death.

A 1307 law ensures that the head of any dead whale found on the British coast becomes the property of the king and the tail belongs to the queen (she need the bones for her corset).

Royal Navy ships which enter the Port of London are required to provide a barrel of rum to the Constable of the Tower of London.

In Chester you are allowed to shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow provided it is done inside the city walls and after midnight.

It is still illegal for cabbies to carry rabid dogs or corpses and by law they must ask all passengers if they have small pox or the plague.

In Scotland, it is illegal to be a drunk in possession of a cow.

Anybody know any more amusing obsolete british laws?

Comments

[zotz]

Actually, the death penalty was formally abolished in 1997 with no fuss whatsoever. I follow politics moderately closely and I didn't find out for six months afterwards.

So there's a reason why the last couple of parliaments haven't had reinstatement debates.

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

The death penalty is contrary to article 1 of the sixth protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights, which was incorporated into British law in 1998 in the Human Rights Act. As I understand it, this is the reason why we no longer have reinstatement debates.

[zotz]

'98? Well, right you are. I remembered it going through faster than that, but I remembered wrongly.

Cheers.

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

There's a mildly interesting article about it here (http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccps/resources_europe_UKabolition.htm).

[zotz]

Yes, there is. Thank you.