Social Developments and the Growth of Sports in Britiain

The poor were so poor in Victorian England that they invariably lived near to disaster. The majority of the nation, however, grew increasingly prosperous during the third quarter of the 19th century. One of the results of this general prosperity, and urbanisation, was the growth of the holiday habit: most people wanted to escape, if only for a day or a week, from the towns the Industrial Revolution had created.

One of the most helpful factors in creating greater opportunity for holidays during these years was the increasing spread of the Saturday half-holiday. Another was the Bank Holiday Act of 1871, which made Boxing Day, Easter Monday, Whit Monday and the first Monday in August into Bank Holidays.

Pastimes for the new urban populations soon developed. Cricket and football of various types had been played in Britain for many centuries, but during these years they were organised and with the growth of big crowds of spectators they tended to become more professional. The laws of Association Football were first laid down in 1863, but even in 1880 goals had tapes instead of crossbars and a player could charge the goalkeeper when not in possession of the ball - so that one player could shoot while another disposed of the goalkeeper.

Rugby was much popularised by the great interest taken in the school and the game after the publication of Tom Brown's Schooldays in 1857.

In cricket these were the days of W. G. Grace, who played first for Gloucestershire in 1862 at the age of fourteen, and the first Australian cricket team, which visited England in 1878. Overarm bowling was made legal in 1864, but pitches were still poor.

For the suburban villa there was the new game of lawn tennis, the rules of which were more or less finally drawn up in 1877. Golf was still spreading only very slowly beyond its native home of Scotland.

By 1914 the following of professional football teams, an increasing habit from the 1880s onwards, had become for many an all-absorbing occupation. A dying Sheffield workman travelled to London for the Cup Final. On his return he collapsed, and in his last moments asked his mother to place the Wednesday colours where his eyes could rest on them. 'I am glad I have lived to see Wednesday win the Cup' were his last words.

The thirty years before the First World War were also probably the greatest days of county cricket, rowing and horse-racing, and they witnessed the rise to popularity of many games, including lawn tennis and golf.

For the great mass of the population there was a considerable increase in leisure from 1918 onwards, partly from shorter working hours and partly from the growing practice of granting paid holidays. By 1939 most industrial workers got a week's paid holiday, and most office workers a fortnight.

The increased availability of leisure time gave people much greater opportunities for games and outdoor activities. Amateur football was widely played, and professional football much more widely watched. The increasing professionalism of Association Football converted many amateurs to rugger. Tennis and golf became popular games, though not as yet greatly enjoyed below the middle class - except in Scotland where golf was cheap and played by all.

Another increasingly popular pastime was swimming. The many new baths built from the 1920s onwards made learning to swim much easier than before. The 1920s also saw the introduction of dirt-track motorcycle racing - a sport for spectators.

For those who preferred gambling to exercise there were the football pools, which became an enormous industry in the thirties and have remained so ever since. The dogs had a slightly earlier boom, when they were found to be sufficiently gullible to be deceived by the electric hare, introduced in 1926. And, of course there were, and are, the horses.