In the mid 19th century, there was an increased fear of political instability in form of Chartism and labor unrest and the appalling public health among the Victorian middle class. Therefore, this class had to look for a means of countering all these problems, hence resorting to the idea and practice of leisure. The poor health of the public was evident when one-third of the urban recruited in the service for the Boer war proved to be unfit.
The middle class embarked on a mission to reform the social and economic status of those above them and below them in society while at the same time formulating a new leisure activity of their own. The leisure activity was supposed to be respected as well as being productive i.e. a leisure activity that was good for the soul and the country as a whole. Above all, leisure and recreation were supposed to be rational.
“The Bible, teetotalism and rational recreation were deployed to polarise culture by offering in mechanics institutes, prayer meetings, temperance parades and concerts of sacred song a use of recreation for social as well as individual redemption,” (Devine & Finlay 1996, Pp 210). The class of leisure set by the middle class, however, started to fade at the beginning of the 20th century since the activities were becoming redundant, due to increased living standards among the urban poor thus eroding the classes in the society. This meant the social life was leveled among all the community members. It henceforth eliminated the working and middle-level classes in the society, thus eliminating the rough culture as a whole. But it has been shown that the whole rough culture was not eliminated but some were carried into the century that followed.
Influence of rational recreation on the provision of leisure.
Different sectors of the economy have mixed ways for the provision of leisure. This has made leisure to be a very volatile activity that is very receptive to new ideas in establishing itself as a distinct field of operation (Clarke, Cochrane & McLaughlin 1994). The distinctions between public, private, and voluntary sectors have helped to differentiate the various approaches that guide the provisions of leisure.
The private sector provides services in the market that gives back profit to the provider of the services. The voluntary sector (also known as non-profit) is usually organized around enthusiasm, and there is a mutual supply and demand for the activities. The public sector on the other hand is usually concerned with the provision of facilities than services. Leisure has often neglected the provision of social services. According to Clarke, Cochrane, & McLaughlin, (1994),
There is a popular view that leisure is no more than a marginal set of activities that are not essential to our lives and as a result, leisure services are regularly dismissed as not being as important as the real social services such as health, housing, education and social care, (pp 164).
Libraries are the only social services that the public has been obliged to provide. The provision of leisure by the public sector has been mostly taken to be compensation to the less fortunate in the society. This can be traced back to early urbanization when the public was involved in the provision of leisure.
During the early urbanization, there was mounting pressure on the local authorities that forced them to provide open spaces for use as places for public meetings. In the public health sector, the argument was that the middle class was demoralizing the population and thus needed to be controlled. This was realized by the introduction of the regulation in the public spaces and the introduction of insurance of licenses for leisure activities such as drinking, music-making, and for those who want to have street gatherings.
With the regulation of leisure time and activities, there emerged the use and issuance of the production of acceptable leisure forms. This contributed to the full involvement of the local authorities in the provision of leisure services, and provision of recreational infrastructure. With this development, there emerged the notion that leisure development was a source of improvement in social and personal life. Therefore, to help the urban population to better themselves, there was the development of swimming pools, playing fields for various games, parks, and sports halls. Libraries and museums were also constructed alongside these facilities.
Some leisure places and their accompanying activities were condemned or outlawed completely. This included places for gambling, or brutalizing games, cockfighting, and bare-knuckle fights. But in case such activities were to take place, then they had to be highly regulated. These regulations were due to moral imperative that was founded on the notion of avoiding the revolution that was experienced in France and the United States, ” and on the notion that the best workers were those who developed themselves away from their place of work with some rational forms of recreations”, (Clarke, pp164).
The ideas of the rational recreation movement were beyond the public sector as they were initiated by the voluntary sectors, concerned civic leaders, and church leaders. There was a strong linkage between the religious leaders who advocated for rational recreation and those who proposed for a more earthly social order. The religious leaders felt that combining a good sporting activity with the religious activities to complement spiritual development in the church, or Temple was thought to develop proper values in a person as a whole.
In the nineteenth century, the church encouraged the youth to come together for leisure activities in what was mostly known as, “muscular Christianity”. This message was also found across various sectors such as the playing fields in the public schools, scouts movements, and various workplaces that promoted sporting activities among their employees. As leisure activities increased religious bodies become more involved in providing recreational activities to their congregations. This was as a means of providing health for both the mind and the body through rational recreation. The religious bodies mostly took these steps to avert what leisure activities the traditional working-class had been accustomed to, yet were viewed by religious bodies as being incompatible with the modern values of the society. This muscular Christianity has been linked to the development of rationalized and respectable sports, for instance in the new codified sports, like football. The sports in the religious sects were also used to make many people attend congregational activities as they watched sports.
Many leisure development provisions in the United Kingdom were provided by the public sector rather than the private sector. These provisions were based on the rationale of recreational welfare. This was because it was believed that this could provide for various advantages in urban life. For instance, there was the belief that the recreational provision would have contributed to a better quality of life in the urban areas. There was also a big concern about urban health and the productivity of the workforce. There was even widespread concern about the general public health after the Boer War, and its fitness to fight.
The public space and facilities were used to establish social integrative and economic inequalities leading to social fragmentation.
The increase in leisure activities led to the increased sporting fixtures between clubs, especially in football and cricket, and saw the emergence of cup and league competitions. In the early development of these sports, the activities were very competitive but unregulated. The sports were mostly taken to mean gambling. Cricket is an example of a game that was associated with gambling and drinking. During the game, public disturbances & disputes were highly experienced.
The sporting activities were affected by the influence of social and economic changes that were taking place during industrial capitalism. The economic system that was experienced during the industrialization period meant new disciplines and regulated hours which in the end affected the hours for leisure, hence created resentments and called for change.
With increased economic and social development, leisure activities became much more available. This is because economic growth implied people had more money to use in leisure activities and the regulated working hours also meant more time to be spent in leisure activities. Competition was a key factor in all aspects of development in the 19th century. The competition was experienced in economic, civic, and traditional villages. In economic competition, it was competition experienced between towns, while traditional village rivalries occurred due to the influx of new inhabitants in the competing areas.
“Public schools were influential in developing a new approach to sport through the concept of amateurism, which became important to reform movements such as the rational recreations”, (Davies & Light, 2006, Pp 6). The idea was that the sport should be played for its own sake and not for self-gain. This is where noncompetition and friendly games in the cricket field began. There was an increased expectation for the teams in both competitive and friendly matches as leisure became more available.
Recreation reforms were also experienced in the factories. Mill owners and most employers were part of the social reforms through sport and recreation. The recreation that involved gambling, drinking and other recreation activities held on spontaneous holidays were damaging to the factory production. “Unpredictable absenteeism, including intermittent observance of ‘Saint Monday’ disrupted factory organisation and impeded productivity. Regularized holidays became the norm and were even expanded as employers discovered that leisure- especially such as rational recreations as a seaside excursions – could promote industrial efficiency,” (Vorspan, 2000, Pp 7).
Therefore, recreation activities improved the health of the employees and their morale to work. This was much beneficial to the factories; the employers thus sponsored clubs such as those of cricket in a formal and non-formal way. In some instances, businessmen started teams that bore the name of the business. At some point, the businessmen sold land cheaply to the club or offer them financial support. The involvement of businessmen in the sporting activities by sponsoring the clubs was also a form of imperative competition. This is because the success of the clubs implied prestige to the businessmen sponsoring the clubs. To achieve this, businessmen went as far as paying the players to play in their clubs or even offering jobs to good players so as they remain in their teams.
Apart from the places of employment, other secular institutions contributed to the development of sporting clubs like cricket. These include working men’s clubs, mechanic institutes, and YMCA was also involved in the reform in the 19th century. “On the surface, these bodies saw recreation in general, and cricket in particular as a means of spreading new social values across society,” (Davies & Light, 2006, Pp 13). They did also recognize the value of providing physical recreation to improve the physical health of members and attract new members by the use of the popularity of the cricket game.
The immigrants who came to Britain after the First World War and had encountered Britain’s influence managed to regroup themselves and started their cricket clubs due to the language barrier, with the local people. Several of the ethnic clubs become very successful and thus played an important role in enabling the players to join the local leagues. This became gradually common as increased immigrants were entering Britain. Language thus was never a hindrance anymore in enabling the immigrants to play in the local cricket clubs in Britain.
Bibliography
- Clarke J, Cochrane A. & McLaughlin E (1994): Managing Social Policy, SAGE, ISBN 08803977697
- Davies P & Light R (2006): The Development of Cricket in Kirklees c. 1700 – 2000, An overview. Web.
- Devine T.M & Finley R. J (1996): Scotland in the Twentieth Centaury, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0748608397.
- Vorspan R (2000): Rational Recreation and the Law: The Transformation Of Popular Urban Leisure in Victorian England.