Popular recreations

This chapter discusses the various qualities of popular recreations, such as being events of intrinsic historical interest and occasional moments of release or reversal. It illustrates some of the ways in which space is important in shaping these customs and practices. Long-forgotten pastimes are also described.

Conclusion

This chapter emphasizes several concluding remarks. It pinpoints a few interesting points for criticism, such as the omission of horse-racing and fighting sports. The chapter highlights the fact that popular culture emerged as the outcome of negotiations between different sections of society. These negotiations were sometimes considered as acrimonious or harmonious, but are always complex.

The demise of bull-baiting

This chapter discusses the demise of bull-baiting. It describes and explains the eventual disappearance of bull-baiting. It states that it is unlikely that the reforming endeavours of the middle classes were the reason of this happening. Social conflicts in Birmingham and the west Midlands due to the disappearance of bull-baiting are discussed, as well as the various interpretations of how bull-baiting slowly disappeared.

Space for recreation in industrial England

This chapter discusses the theme of space. It aims to position the sports and pastimes described in Chapter 6 more firmly within their topographical context. The chapter also discusses these activities using the finer perspective of space. An assessment of how far pressure on space during the early nineteenth-century industrial towns served to constrict the practice of these activities is presented.

Bull-baiting: intellectual history

This chapter attempts to establish the extent of concern for animal suffering during eighteenth-century England. An intellectual history of this sport is provided. It looks at the rapid emergence of hostile criticism about bull-baiting in the late eighteenth-century. The chapter also attempts to situate the outpouring of concern within the wider context of concern about animal cruelty.

Provincial towns: streets and squares, 1750–1830

This chapter gives an extended analysis of street recreations. It does this in two ways. It continues the chronological history of street recreations from earlier chapters and looks at the fortunes of events that were once funded by civic elites in the years following the end of these payments. It also considers forms of civic recreations that did not have routine funding, and examines the cycle of pleasure fairs and the occasional public celebrations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of ephemeral events and plebeian street recreation.

Village greens

This chapter discusses the practice of recreation in rural areas. It focuses on the spaces where the games were played. It examines the long-forgotten sport of camping, which illustrates both the possibilities and the problems of using space to explore the history of popular recreations in the rural context.

Provincial towns: streets and squares, 1660–1750

This chapter discusses two distinct forms of street recreation in the century that followed the Restoration. It begins with the almost forgotten tradition of bull-baiting in the early modern market place. The chapter also looks at the civic celebrations and street bonfires, which were made familiar in frequent descriptions by eighteenth-century urban elites and modern historians. It looks at the subtle changes in the ways civic authorities regarded these pastimes during the period.

Introduction

This introductory chapter discusses the histories of popular recreation in early modern England. It looks at the research previously conducted in this field, which shows that researchers were concerned mostly with the customs and traditions of earlier generations. Various accounts on sports and pastimes of this period are examined in the chapter.

Industrial towns and townships, 1750–1840

This chapter discusses sports and pastimes that were enjoyed in two contrasting communities in the early nineteenth century: the west Midlands and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It demonstrates the very different patterns of popular recreations that prevailed in each. The chapter also sets out to consider how such marked divergences between the cultural practices of the two regions had been formed. It explores popular recreation from the viewpoint of the regions.