Pre-Industrial Britain- social and cultural factors

Question 1

• Describe the upper class and give examples of sports and pastimes:
• *HINT* There’s

Answer 1

• Aristocracy or gentry who were hereditary landowners
• Examples of sports and pastimes:
• Real tennis and fox hunting: sophisticated activities with complex rules which required money to participate
• Pedestrianism: as patrons (sponsors) of lower-class competitors; derived from putting wagers on footmen
• Cricket: played as ‘gentleman’ amateurs

Question 2

• Describe the Lower/peasant class and give examples of sports and pastimes:

Answer 2

• Peasants who worked manually, mainly on the land
• Examples of sports and pastimes:
• Mob football, dog fighting, prize fighting: simple activities, often violent, with few rules
• Pedestrianism: as competitions, racing (walking or running); derived from footmen racing and beating others
• Cricket: played as ‘player’ lower-class professionals

Question 3

• What was the upper and lower class view on gender?

Answer 3

• Women participated in very different activities to men
• Women were seen as the ‘weaker’ sex
• Activities women participated in were not ‘too strenuous’ or ‘dangerous’

Question 4

• What was the upper class view on gender?

Answer 4

• Women could take part in archery

Question 5

• What was the lower class views on gender?

Answer 5

• During country fair, women were allowed to take part in ‘smock races’

Question 6

• What was the law and order like for the upper and lower classes?

Answer 6

• There was little law and order, reflected in the activities undertaken

Question 7

• What was the law and order like for the lower class?

Answer 7

• Involved in bare-knuckle fighting or animal baiting, reflecting lack of order and animal cruelty
• Games like mob-football had few rules, showing lack of law and order in society at this time

Question 8

• Education: upper class:

Answer 8

• Educated and literate
• Could read and write and understand written rules of sophisticated activities like real tennis

Question 9

• Education: Lower class:

Answer 9

• Uneducated and illiterate
• Could understand simple activities with few rules, like mob football

Question 10

• Availability of time: Upper class:

Answer 10

• Had more time and could be involved in longer-lasting activities, e.g. fox hunting

Question 11

• Availability of time: Lower class:

Answer 11

• Worked long exhausting hours, so had little time and energy for physical activities
• The few activities they participated in were confined to festivals or holy days, based around pubs, e.g. drinking contests, bare-knuckling fighting

Question 12

• Availability of money: Upper class

Answer 12

• More money therefore more opportunities to be involved in physical activity of their choice
• Could afford horses, clothing and equipment, e.g. hunting, real tennis
• Had access to specialist facilities, e.g. real tennis courts

Question 13

• Availability of money: Lower:

Answer 13

• Had no spare money to spend on physical activities

Question 14

• Type and transport available for upper and lower classes:

Answer 14

• Activities were local; transport was generally horse cart or walking

Question 15

• Type and transport available for upper class:

Answer 15

• Had more opportunity to travel further by horse and carriage, but this was often limited by state of the roads
• Could get to facilities such as real tennis courts; some gentry would even build the facility within the grounds of their stately homes

Question 16

• Type and transport available for lower class:

Answer 16

• Roads were in a poor state, preventing people from leaving their villages; this influenced the simple, local and unwritten rules, varying from village to village