Cultural Continuity and Football in Nineteenth-century Lancashire

This article outlines the rich local cultural sporting practices endemic in south and east Lancashire from the 1820s through to the 1880s, particularly in the Bolton-Darwen-Blackburn triangle. These included playing football and foot-racing for money and other prizes; links with commercialism via the licensed trade and betting are also stressed. The existence of a localized football culture in this area, in a period when many historians have suggested that football development was confined to the public schools, helps to explain the transition to full professionalism in Lancashire during the 1880s. The transitional links are especially evident in the small-sided games played for money at athletics festivals organized by the newly-formed association clubs from the 1870s and into the early 1880s.