Blood Sports in Victorian Cumbria policing cultural change

Blood Sports in Victorian Cumbria: policing cultural change Guy Woolnough guy. woolnough@btinternet. com www. guywoolnough. com @Guy. Woolnough

Hugh Lowther, Lord Lonsdale, ‘the sporting earl’ keen supporter of boxing, , Sutherland Yellow Earl, 1965. The Cock Fight, English (anon) c. 1850 Compton Verney Cock-fighting supported by eminent Westmorland gentry, Lancaster Gazette 1885 Many respectable citizens, including magistrates, support and attend cock fights. Humber, R. D. , Game Cock & Countryman, 1966 Peachey, B. F. , The Cockfighters: A Survey and Analysis of the Sport of Cockfighting in Britain, 1991 -1992 (1993) Heenan/Sayers match, April 1860.

Cumberland Westmorland Wrestling Large crowds and gambling, but no bloodshed Georg Steadman wrestles Richard Wright, 1872.

Jem Mace heavyweight champion, boxing promoter, showman Mace defeats Tom King The Illustrated Sporting News. 1862. Mace brings fights to Westmorland Apr 1865, fight completed, fighters summonsed afterwards, bound over £ 20 Mar 1867, police stop the fight, fighters sentenced to one month and three months.

Respectable, manly. Disreputable, blackguards and blockheads Wrestling Foot-racing Prize-fighting Dog fighting Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown speaking to young working men, Carlisle 1858, reported in Carlisle Journal

Respectable, manly. Wrestling Foot-racing Dubious Disreputable, blackguards and blockheads Cock-fighting Prize-fighting Dog fighting Cruelty to animals Hunting Cock throwing Animal cruelty was in a dubious area. Many cases were brought by the RSPCA.

South Cumberland Furness Cock-fighting Club, had a successful main on Saturday last, in the neighbourhood of Whitbeck. It is to be regretted that your contemporary was not in a position to publish the names of the hardened law breakers, who took part in this disgraceful affair. Westmorland Gazette, 10 May 1890 p 8 Favourable to cock-fighting: Hostile to cock-fighting: Westmorland Gazette Carlisle Journal Kendal Mercury Whitehaven News

The Difficulties of Policing Cock-fights. Petty Sessions, Kendal 1864: One defendant said to “PC Currie ‘If they [those at the main] were all of my mind you (the police) should not go home with whole bones (Laughter)’” Defendants admitted owning the cocks , fitting them with spurs, fighting them. The defence: the police had presented no evidence that cruelty had taken place only that the cocks had been fighting. “the bench ‘did not consider the case sufficiently strong against the defendants to convict them upon the evidence. They were sorry they could do no more. ’”

Summary Cock-fighting Prize-fighting Orders from the chief constable None Must be stopped Behaviour of defendants in court Insolent, disruptive Compliant Penalties Fines, 10 shillings to £ 5 Bound over, 3 months. Acquittals Frequent None Status of the ‘sport’ Cumbrian, traditional Alien, brought in by outsiders Actions of ordinary policemen. Police made determined efforts to stop matches.

Wrestling was respectable in Cumbria, prize fighting was alien and unacceptable. Cock-fighting was supported by all classes. Some magistrates were sympathetic, some gentlemen attended cock-fights. Cock-fighting was entrenched in local culture. But the respectable working class were strongly opposed. Successful prosecution of these sports depended on the determination, initiative and discretionary action of ordinary policemen.

2001: 14 arrested at a cockfight, Lancaster October 2012. Two arrested for organising cockfights in Sussex January 2014. Four arrested at a cockfight in Kent