Pre-industrial Britain

Question 1

What were the sports played by the lower class?

Answer 1

Mob Football
Prize Fighting
Dog Fighting

Question 2

What is mob football?

Answer 2

Working class men tried to get a ball from one end of town to the other.

Question 3

What was the ball made from in mob football?

Answer 3

A pigs head or the head of a person who had been publicly beheaded

Question 4

What were the general principles of lower class sports?

Answer 4

• Few rules
• Violence
• Gambling

Question 5

Who were the lower class?

Answer 5

Peasants and land workers who were paid poorly for long and physical hours of work

Question 6

Who were the upper class?

Answer 6

The aristocracy and gentry, they were rich and owned land

Question 7

What were the upper class sports?

Answer 7

Real Tennis
Cock Fighting
Fox Hunting

Question 8

What were the principles of upper class sports?

Answer 8

• Sophisticated rules
• Violence
• Gambling
• Expensive equipment

Question 9

What were the sports for both social classes?

Answer 9

• Pedestrianism
• Cricket

Question 10

What was pedestrianism?

Answer 10

Butlers and lower class men would footrace each other. There was gambling and it may be seen as violent and cruel

Question 11

Who played cricket in pre-industrial Britain?

Answer 11

Players and Gentleman Amateurs

Question 12

Who were ‘players’ in pre-industrial cricket?

Answer 12

Lower class players who were good enough to be paid

Question 13

Who were ‘gentleman amateurs’ in pre-industrial cricket?

Answer 13

Upper class players who were not paid as they seen it as vulgar to be paid to play sport

Question 14

How did sports differ due to social classes?

Answer 14

Lower class sports were violent and had fewer rules.
Upper class sports were more sophisticated and complicated as they were educated

Question 15

How did sports differ due to gender?

Answer 15

Peasant women raced to win a dress, ‘smock racing’.
Upper class women would play archery

(overall they were seen as the weaker sex)

Question 16

How did law and order affect sports?

Answer 16

There was little formal law.
Peasants had violent sports like mob football and prize fighting.
The upper class disagreed with this and mob football was eventually banned

Question 17

How did education affect sports?

Answer 17

Upper class had more sophisticated rules due to being highly educated.

Whereas, lower class couldn’t even read or write and therefore had less rules

Question 18

How did available time affect sport?

Answer 18

The lower class worked long hours and did manual labour, sports were mainly played in public holidays

The upper class have more time and can participate in longer lasting sports, like fox hunting

Question 19

How did available money impact sport?

Answer 19

Upper class had more money and could afford more equipment and facilities

The lower class changed activities in relation to money. They had less disposable income.

Question 20

How did transport affect sport?

Answer 20

The only transport for the upper class was horse and carriage, everyone else had to walk; there weren’t many roads and no infrastructure

The rules between towns changed as they had to make their own rules.

More time was needed for the gentry to travel for real tennis, so the aristocracy built their own courts