ABSTRACT
As we have seen, the public house had always been a gathering place for recreational activities with skittles and bowls taking place there and with local hunts meeting there. Given the commercial nature of the business it is not surprising that the publican should often sponsor and promote sporting activities to boost trade nor that other promoters should seek his or her support for their ventures. Horse-racing was the first activity to be positively encouraged through financial sponsorship and town councils were often instrumental in promoting local racing in order to attract people to their areas, much as tourist boards and chambers of commerce do today. Newton racecourse in Lancashire was one of the first to be properly surveyed and laid out and Richard Legh, the Lord of the Manor who was largely responsible for its establishment, made sure that all the local innkeepers made an annual donation of 12d towards a silver plate 'to be run for with horses'. 1 All subsequent meetings here and elsewhere were partly funded by commercial subscriptions to plates and cups for winning owners. The inn would easily recoup any financial outlay as the incoming crowds would queue to eat and drink at the 'Ordinarys and Assemblys available as usua1'2 at each and every watering hole. Always available too were the cock-fights to attract the racing gamblers before and after the main meeting, until that is the latter part of the eighteenth century when a combination of puritan revulsion and official reaction to civil
disruption caused it to become far less common and publicans began to realize that 'cocking' was likely to lead to a revocation of their licences. It was banned throughout the country in 1795 but the occasional prosecution provides evidence of its continuing fascination to the present day, usually in areas of the country like Cheshire and Northumberland where it was always most popular.3
