Socioculture - Pre Industrial Britain

Question 1

What was social class like in pre-industrial Britain?

Answer 1

Two class society:
- upper class: landowners, born into this class, wealthy, privileged, had more leisure time and educated.
- lower class: worked manually on the land, poor, uneducated, long strenuous working hours.

Question 2

What are examples of upper class sport in pre industrial Britain?

Answer 2

Real tennis
Fox Hunting

Question 3

What are examples of lower class sports in pre industrial Britain?

Answer 3

Mob football
Bare knuckle fighting

Question 4

What was gender like in pre industrial Britain?

Answer 4

• women considered by men to be the weaker sex
• women not permitted to take part in anything considered too strenuous
• lower class women may compete in ‘smock race’ a foot race with a smock
• upper class women could take part in the civilised and gentle sport of archery

Question 5

What was law and order like in pre industrial Britain?

Answer 5

• lawlessness, with no centralised police force
• little in the way of laws
• lower class sport had little rules, violent brutal and cruel (mob football, bare knuckle fighting)
• upper class had more wealth so could afford education and more civilised sports with rules such as real tennis

Question 6

What was education and literacy like in pre-industrial Britain?

Answer 6

Upper-class: literate and more educated so the sports had sophisticated and complex rules such as real tennis.
Lower class: mostly illiterate and largely uneducated so the sports had few rules and were simple such as mob football.

Question 7

What was the availability of timeline in pre-industrial Britain?

Answer 7

Upper-class: rarely had to work so upper classes had plenty of leisure time so sports could be more frequent and less longer such as fox hunting.
Lower class: had to work long hours on the land, work was also very seasonal so the lower classes tended to only place sports on festivals or holidays .

Question 8

What was the availability of money like in pre-industrial Britain?

Answer 8

Upper class: usually had disposable income so could afford horses, equipment, facilities, clothing and owned land on which sport could take place e.g. fox hunting, archery and real tennis.
Lower class: had very little or no disposable income so they could only play sports requiring inexpensive equipment and played on existing space, e.g. the village Street and market squares .

Question 9

What was the type and availability of transport like in pre-industrial Britain?

Answer 9

• Although roads poor upper classes had more opportunities to travel via horse and carriage.
• Upper class could travel further to facilities away from their homes rules had to be standardised.
  -Lower classes mostly only had the option to walk as a way of travel horses tended to be used to work the land
• Sport in the lower classes were played in local areas with unwritten rules unique to the village in which they are played like mob football.

Question 10

What is pedestrianism?

Answer 10

A precursor to track athletics and a sport for both classes but with different roles.
It was a competitive running or walking race.
- Lower classes would be the competitors
- upper classes would be the supporters or patrons

Question 11

What was cricket like in pre-industrial Britain?

Answer 11

• cricket was a popular pastime it accelerated by gambling because it’s soon attracted the attention of members from the upper class who were seeking to make wagers.
• The upper formed and captain their teams and were known as gentlemen however the lower class were the players and were very good at cricket.