Leisure and Recreation in a Victorian Mining Community: The Social Economy of Leisure in North-East England, 1820-1914

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the development of mass leisure in general, and of major sports in particular, has presented a fertile field for research to historians of modern British society. Alan Metcalfe—a Geordie whose academic career in the discipline of kinesiology has been pursued in Canada—has broken new ground by taking the microscope to a small, compact, and distinctive industrial region in order to unravel the complexity and the diversity of its popular culture in the decades before the First World War. The scope of his study is narrower than his title implies. Although it includes a chapter on ‘non-sporting leisure’, this is very much a history of sport; and the ‘mining community’ under scrutiny consists of the fifty or so pit-villages of the small Northumberland coalfield, north of the Tyne, rather than the Great Northern Coalfield as a whole. Within these limits, however, a good deal of ground is covered in a thorough and thoughtful fashion. Professor Metcalfe offers a wealth of detail, first, on the remarkable longevity of such ‘traditional’ pitmen's pastimes as cock-fighting and potshare bowling; second, on the gradual transformation of ‘old’ sports like pigeon-racing and athletics; third, on those two spectacular crazes of the 1890s, billiards and bicycles; and finally, on soccer, as the ‘beautiful game’ evolved towards commercialisation and professionalism, while at the same time establishing itself as the major participation sport among the working class. All these developments are analysed in terms of their significance for community life and relationships within the coalfield; but Metcalfe also takes pains to point out ways in which the experience of east Northumberland may have differed from that of other parts of the country. Particularly striking is his emphasis on the economic booms of the early 1870s and, more particularly, the later 1890s in providing favourable conditions for major new developments in both the range and the organisation of sporting activity among the miners. The crucial role in all this of the miner-controlled Social clubs and Institutes which mushroomed in the pit villages during the two decades before the First World War is especially well illustrated. But for all its merits, Metcalfe's book leaves some important themes largely unexplored. As he himself points out, because the world of sport was a man's world, the women of the coalfield are virtually excluded. Consequently, several popular domestic pastimes, appropriate to the family circle—such as reading (and being read to), and playing card games—are ignored. Although annual flower shows and Sunday School picnics get a mention, community celebrations of exceptional national events—such as the Queen's jubilees in 1887 and 1897, or the coronations of 1902 and 1911—escape notice. Similarly, little attention is given to the fact that many (although not all) of the sports under consideration were age-specific as well as gender-specific. In other words, they appealed chiefly to young men during that brief interlude between school and marriage—a time of life when sporting pursuits had also to leave room for gentle dalliance and serious courtship. Finally, although the opportunities for recreation may have brought purpose and pleasure to many pitmen's lives, the use of one's ‘free time’ was, in the end, a matter of individual choice. Choice was, of course, limited to what was locally available; and it was partly shaped by family traditions and peer-pressure. As Metcalfe points out, leisure activity was always constrained by ‘time, money, and space’; but it also depended crucially on individual inclination and personal commitment. Man does not live by football alone; and the range of options open, even to Northumberland pitmen a century ago, was wider than the present study appears to suggest. Why some men chose one option, and some another; how often they changed their minds and pursued new fads and fashions; and how much time, effort and money they were able and willing to commit to their ‘hobbies’ at different stages of their lives, are questions which remain unanswered in this useful but narrowly-focused book.