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Abstract
During the second half of the nineteenth century, religion and cricket came together in the industrial area of West Yorkshire now known as Calderdale. Such an eventuality seemed remote during the first half of that century with clergymen opposed to – even fearful of – popular sports. This article examines why clerical attitudes changed, allowing churches, chapels and Sunday schools to form cricket clubs. It argues, however, that the factors which drove the creation of church cricket and moulded its nature were more a consequence of industrial society and the situation of working men within that society than of clerical influence and even less of Muscular Christianity. It further holds that it was the adaptation of church cricket to this working-class culture, rather than a reaction against a clerical agenda of what Peter Bailey has termed ‘play discipline’, that the marriage sooner or later ended in separation or divorce.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank those who have kindly read and commented so constructively on this article, especially Dr. John Hargreaves of the University of Huddersfield.
Notes
1 Citation Elland Cricket , Athletic & Bowling Club, 5.
2 The area's population quadrupled from 41,220 in 1801 to 170,408 in 1881. During the same period, the population of Great Britain almost trebled (10.69 million to 29.79 million). Calderdale was far more typical of urban growth than, for example, Manchester (75,000 to 502,000) or Bradford (13,000 to 183,000). Sources: CitationHargreaves, Halifax, 74 (Table 1.4 Population of the township and parish of Halifax 1743–1851); UK Population Census, 1881; CitationMathias, The First Industrial Nation, 415 (Table 1 Population Growth in Great Britain and the United Kingdom, 1801–1931), 417 (Table 3 Growth of Towns).
3 CitationHardcastle, Lost; plus my own findings. One hundred and ninety-nine church clubs and teams have been identified, with 116 for works and 47 for pubs and Working Men's Clubs. The precise numbers will never be known, but for churches, 225–250 seems reasonable.
4 Of 437 teams identified, 208 came from religious bodies. The figure is so high because clubs could have two or more teams and also switched between leagues.
5 Findings of David Normanton, President of the Towergate Halifax Cricket League.
6 CitationSandiford, Cricket and the Victorians, 36, 53–4.
7 CitationLawson, Letters to the Young, 81–2.
8 CitationPullin, Talks with Old Yorkshire Cricketers, 54.
9 CitationHignell, ‘Favourit’ Game, 86.
10 CitationCurrie, Methodism Divided, 132.
11 Hargreaves, Halifax, 150.
12 CitationBailey, Leisure and Class in Victorian England, 58.
13 CitationNewsome, Godliness and Good Learning, 207.
14 CitationPycroft, The Cricket Field, 41.
15 CitationGreen, ‘The Church of England and the Working Classes’, 107.
16 There was probably a small Nonconformist majority. Unfortunately, the returns for the municipal borough of Halifax omit the Congregationalists, Particular Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians and Catholics. See Hargreaves, Halifax, 168.
17 There was probably a small Nonconformist majority. Unfortunately, the returns for the municipal borough of Halifax omit the Congregationalists, Particular Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians and Catholics. See Hargreaves, Halifax, 108.
18 There was probably a small Nonconformist majority. Unfortunately, the returns for the municipal borough of Halifax omit the Congregationalists, Particular Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians and Catholics. See Hargreaves, Halifax, 113.
19 CitationGale, ‘The Clergy and Cricket’.
20 CitationMcLeod, ‘Sport and the English Sunday School’, 118.
21 W. F. Switcher, ‘Leisure Moments’, ‘Gazette’, 26 June 1877.
22 W. F. Switcher, ‘Leisure Moments’, ‘Gazette’, 26 June 1877, ‘A Helper’, ‘Ought the Christian Church to supply counter Attractions and Pleasures to those of the World’, 21 October 1979.
23 W. F. Switcher, ‘Leisure Moments’, ‘Gazette’, 26 June 1877, piece by ‘A Suggestion’, 1891 (No precise date).
24 Tenth Annual Report of Elland Cricket Club, The Halifax Guardian, 1 March 1873.
25 The Halifax Guardian, 8 and 15 November 1873.
26 CitationSt Thomas' Church Jubilee, no page number.
28 Lister was president at least from 1894, report of the club's annual dinner, The Halifax Guardian, 17 March 1894.
29 CitationHolt, Sport and the British,138.
30 CitationWilliams, Cricket and England,149–50.
31 The Halifax Guardian, 28 April 1877.
32 The Halifax Guardian, 13 July 1878.
33 The Halifax Guardian and The Halifax Courier, various dates.
34 CitationO'Keefe, Start of Play, 11.
35 Robinson arrived in March 1881, Taylor in September 1883. Luddenden Parish History, 43.
36 Scores of Luddenden St Mary's v. Mytholmroyd 2nd XI, The Halifax Guardian, 26 July 1884.
37 Meeting 8 April 1897, Citation‘Outlane Bethel Methodist New Connexion Chapel Trustees’ Minute Book'.
38 ‘B. Hoyle’ played for Outlane v. Thurstonland. The Huddersfield Examiner Supplement, 30 August 1884. Hoyle was 21 or 22 at the time.
39 The Huddersfield Daily Chronicle, The Huddersfield Examiner and The Halifax Guardian, various 1874 to 1892: The Leeds Mercury, 11 July 1887.
40 ‘Haigh (prof.)’ played against Cliffe End, The Huddersfield Daily Chronicle and West Yorkshire Advertiser, 28 August 1883.
41 Thomas Hoyle, Citation‘Outlane Cricket Club Secretary's Book’, 18 May 1900.
42 CitationHirst and Roberts, Methodism in Outlane, no page number. In January 1888 there were 18 male members, by 1893 this had increased to 30, but fallen again to 24 by the time the cricket club was formed, Citation‘Outlane Chapel Members’.
43 In 1897, of 94 chapel members, only 24 were male, ‘Outlane Bethel Methodist New Connexion Chapel Members Lists’.
44 Annual Report for 1909, Citation‘Outlane Cricket Club Minutes’, 30 September 1901. ‘Outlane Chapel Members’, 1908.
45 Outlane had c. 1000 inhabitants, UK Population Census, 1901.
46 The Bradford Observer, 8 April 1871.
47 Hargreaves, Halifax, 73, 127.
48 In the Deanery of Halifax, enrolments increased from 17,498 in 1889 to 18,668 in 1908. CitationHargreaves, ‘Religion and Society’, 286.
49 CitationHargreaves, ‘Religion and Society’, 315, 368.
50 CitationHargreaves, ‘Religion and Society’, 369.
51 CitationHargreaves, ‘Religion and Society’, 370.
52 CitationBurton, ‘Chapel Culture’.
53 Annual Meetings of 1885 and 1886. Citation‘Mytholmroyd Sunday School Teachers' Minute Book’.
54 Annual Meetings of 1885 and 1886. Citation‘Mytholmroyd Sunday School Teachers' Minute Book’, 4 April 1888 and 31 March 1893.
55 ‘Mytholmroyd Sunday School Teachers' Minute Book’, Annual Meeting, 31 March 1893.
56 ‘Mytholmroyd Sunday School Teachers' Minute Book’, Annual Meeting, 31 March 1893, My italics.
57 ‘Mytholmroyd Sunday School Cricket Club Fixture Card, 1894;Citation Mytholmroyd Wesleyan Centenary , 30–34; CitationGreenwood, ‘Mytholmroyd Methodist Cricket Club’.
58 Citation‘Mytholmroyd Wesleyan School Cricket Club Fixture Card, 1894’; Mytholmroyd Wesleyan Centenary, 30–4.
59 Figures for 1903 showed 285 scholars on the books, but as this was a decrease of 16, the figures for 1902 must have been 301. The Halifax Guardian, 28 March 1903.
60 Figures for 1903 showed 285 scholars on the books, but as this was a decrease of 16, the figures for 1902 must have been 301. The Halifax Guardian, 28 March 1903
61 Figures for 1903 showed 285 scholars on the books, but as this was a decrease of 16, the figures for 1902 must have been 301. The Halifax Guardian, 28 March 1903, 5 April 1902.
62 F. Robinson, the Rev. B. Davies, The Leeds Mercury, 2 April 1900.
63 From an average total of about 20, Citation‘Inchfield Bottom Teachers Meetings’.
64 From an average total of about 20, Citation‘Inchfield Bottom Teachers Meetings’, 1 December 1901. The teachers were included in the ‘Star System’ devised to reward scholars for attendance and punctuality.
65 ‘Inchfield Bottom Teachers Meetings’, 15 November 1910.
66 Trinity Methodist Church,13.
67 CitationBrailsford, British Sport, 90.
68 Holt, Sport and the British,137–8.
69 CitationWilliams, ‘Churches, Sport and Identities’, 118.
70 UK Population Censuses 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901.
71 ‘Illingworth Cricket Club Minute Book Citation1’, 17 October 1884.
72 Speech of the Rev. George Oldacres at the club's annual dinner, The Halifax Guardian, 12 November 1887.
73 Friendly societies were very strictly regulated and generally required their members to take office in rotation. They were immensely popular in the area. By the 1870s, between 75 and 80% of men were members of friendly and kindred societies. CitationThompson, The Rise of Respectable Society, 201.
74 CitationWomersley, ‘Letter to John Lister’, thanking him for use of his land.
75 ‘Illingworth Cricket Club Minute Book 1’, 22 February and 6 October 1884.
76 CitationWood, A History of Thornhill Cricket and Bowling Club, 14.
77 ‘Luddenden Cricket Club Account Book’, 28 April 1884; UK Population Census, 1881.
78 Of the 10 members identified in the 1901 census, two were clerks, one a brewer's ‘traveller’. Of the remaining seven, two were stone dressers, and the other five were woollen and worsted workers. ‘Outlane Cricket Club Minutes’, 16 February 1908.
79 Citation‘Inchfield Bottom Cricket Club Minute Book’, 15 December 1902; UK Population Census, 1901.
80 ‘Mytholmroyd Fixture Card, 1894’; UK Population Census, 1891.
81 The Calder Valley League contained the only Roman Catholic club in Calderdale before the Great War: the Catholic Association from Todmorden.
82 The West Vale Baptist League, 1901; the Halifax and District Church (Sunday School) League, 1907; and the Halifax and District Nonconformist League, 1908.
83 CitationInglis, Churches and the Working Classes, 41; Williams, Cricket and England, 143.
84 Derived from CitationOakley, Story of Saint Mary's Illingworth, mainly Appendices I & II, 122 and CitationCrockfords.
85 CitationBrown, Nonconformist Ministry, 92.
87 Brown, Nonconformist Ministry, 59.
88 Brown, Nonconformist Ministry, 82.
89 Currie, Methodism Divided, 134.
90 Brown, Nonconformist Ministry, 89.
91 Sandiford, Cricket and the Victorians, 36, 53–4.
92 Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, 151.
93 Gray, The Willow and the Cloth, 195.
95 Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter, Friday 11 October 1895.
96 The Halifax Guardian, 7 September 1907. My italics.
97 Victory of Northowram Wesleyans (later Northowram Hedge Top) against Pellon Baptists on 2 August, from CitationDeadman, ‘A History of Northowram Hedge Top’, no page number.
98 Citation‘Mytholmroyd CC The Early Years’. ‘Junior’ implies not youth but lower-standard cricket.
100 CitationBorsay, A History of Leisure, 95.
101 ‘Illingworth Cricket Club Minute Book 1’, 12 November 1888. Arthur Chapman was engaged as both player and coach.
102 CitationLight, ‘The Other Face of English Cricket’, 63–8, 74, 82–5.
103 The Halifax Guardian, 8 June 1863. Having 22 players evened up the both contest and the betting.
104 Heywood et al., Cloth Caps, 63–9.
105 Heywood et al., Cloth Caps, 13.
106 Sandiford, Cricket and the Victorians, 124.
107 CitationDavies and Light, 180 Not Out, 1. The fixtures were against Gloucestershire (1888), Middlesex (1889) and Kent (1897).
108 ‘Illingworth Cricket Club Minute Book 1’, 24 October and 5 December 1887.
109 ‘Illingworth Cricket Club Minute Book 1’, Annual Report for 1894.
110 ‘Outlane Cricket Club Minutes’, 8 June 1908.
111 The Huddersfield Examiner Supplement, 26 September 1908; The Huddersfield Examiner, indicated in the published league tables after June 1913.
112 Light, ‘Cricket's Forgotten Past’, 192–94.
113 ‘Inchfield Bottom Cricket Club Minute Book’, Annual Meeting, 5 October 1903.
114 ‘Stones Wesleyan Cricket Club Minutes, Citation1914– 1941’, Annual Meeting, 11 October 1920.
115 ‘Outlane Cricket Club Minutes’, 6 April 1908.
116 ‘Illingworth Cricket Club Minute Book 2’, 9 April 1915.
117 Meeting of 16 April 1919, Citation‘Luddenden Cricket Club Minute Book’. The club was being revived after having had to finish in 1915, Hardcastle, Lost, 57.
118 CitationGreen, Religion in the Age of Decline, 185–9.
119 O'Keefe, Start of Play, 19–22.
120 CitationCunningham, Leisure in the Industrial Revolution, 126; Light, ‘Cricket's Forgotten Past’, 150.
121 McLeod, ‘Sport and the English Sunday School’, 114.
122 ‘Illingworth Cricket Club Minute Book 2’, 3 October 1913.
123 Elland Cricket, Athletic & Bowling Club, 13.
125 ‘Outlane Cricket Club Minutes’, 28 April 1919.
126 ‘Outlane Cricket Club Minutes’, 28 April 1919
127 ‘Outlane Cricket Club Minutes’, 19 September 1919.
128 Obituary of Miss Selina Barrett, President of CitationStones Wesleyan CC, The Halifax Courier and Guardian, 28 December 1938.
129 Citation‘Rules of Mytholmroyd Cricket Club’, 1956.