ABSTRACT
Cultural continuity is the theme of the chapter, underpinned by production of compelling new and original material from all resources, but particularly digitized nineteenth century newspapers, emphasising the size and significance of the game outside of the public schools between 1800 and 1830. This then extends and supports the revisionist argument surrounding the origins of modern football and, in so doing, outlines a football culture which, in many cases, resulted in court cases where the so-called ‘lower orders’ were penalised for playing football, or for rough and violent behaviour in the course of playing despite there being a shift in the locus of games from urban areas, where they could cause a nuisance and fall foul of the authorities, to paddocks and fields. It also responds to Hugh Cunningham’s call for the study at the local and rural level over the nineteenth century as a whole using the local press from its inception to contribute towards a meticulous ethnography of the mid-Victorian urban working class.
