Cultural Marginalization and Folk Football in England:The case of Hurling, 1600-1860

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ABSTRACT This article explores the history of Hurling, a form of folk football, played predominantly in the south-west of England, between 1600 and 1860. In so doing, it seeks to contribute to the so-called ‘origins of football’ debate by examining evidence of the ’cultural marginalization’ of the game, originally outlined by the sociologist Eric Dunning. First, though, it examines Carew’s early account of the sport in which he describes two varieties of the game. Hurling ‘to goals’ and Hurling ‘to the country’, one a relatively small sided game, the other a mass spectacle. The decline of the mass game is outlined indicating that the local gentry were increasingly discouraged from sponsoring it as a result of the rise in strong Evangelical beliefs. The general population being substantively influenced by the growth in Methodism, temperance reform and teetotal movements. Original evidence is presented, however, of the survival of the small-sided game through mid-century as more commercially oriented sponsors, notably publicans, continued to play a significant role in the recreational life of miners at a time when is has been claimed by some ‘dominant paradigm’ historians that folk football was, in essence, ‘dead’ by the 1830s. Smaller contests persisted and were even supported by local authorities with some still remaining in place to the current day. This evidence then furthers the notion that distinct forms of football in different regions of Britain had divergent histories and cannot be accounted for within all-encompassing grand narratives such as a ‘civilizing process’