What was the most common way British working class men, women, and children spent their leisure time, in the 1800s?
EDIT: What was the most common way British working class men, women, and children spent their leisure time, in the 1800s? Was there any leisure time activity that men, women, and children could all enjoy? Or was there no activity that included both genders and all ages?
Bump
I think you’re going to have to be more specific. Was there a difference in what people did for fun in 1900 and 1999? Same thing with 1800 and 1899. Maybe even a bigger difference.
They had precious little leisure time.
Drinking?
For that matter, I would imagine there was a significant difference between, say, Londonders, and those who lived in rural areas, and perhaps between the different regions of Britain.
I think the answer is go to church, have a family afternoon meal and perhaps doing some reading while someone played the piano. Didn’t they work every day except Sunday? I would think going on a picnic might be popular during the warmer/dryer months during a public holiday…
That sounds very middle class, if you don’t mind me saying. Your average working class family throughout the 19th century would more likely have been living in a single room (sometimes with another family) without either the means to cook a family meal or space to put a piano – in the extremely unlikely circumstance that they could afford one.
They generally weren’t much fussed about going to church, either.
Drinking, quarreling and fucking.
I agree with your first paragraph (well, for the whole working class over the whole century you might be exaggerating the level of poverty a bit - some had houses even), but I think many probably did attend church. If you were dirt poor, church was a welcome relief from your cramped home, and a cheap form of entertainment of a sort. Certainly it functioned that way for the rural poor before the industrial revolution, and it would be surprising if many of them did not carry over those habits to their new urban environment.
I am a bit unclear whether the OP is asking about the whole century, or just its first decade. I believe that on the whole, conditions for many segments of the working class improved a good deal over the course of the century. By the end, a few of them might indeed have been able to afford pianos.
My granddad and grandma on my father’s side worked in service during the 1920’s and 30’s and from what they said they actually got very little time off. It seemed to amount to Sunday and maybe a day a year holiday where you might go on a trip to the sea side.
I don’t think they were even guaranteed the whole of the Sunday off. It could just be Sunday morning. Also on their work days I think there was no concept of 9 – 5 type hours. Often their days could be much longer. I think the idea of fixed hours is just not something they really worked to in those types of jobs.
I cannot imagine it was any better in the 1800’s.
Ah the good old days eh.
Oh, God, yeah – I was over-generalising like anything. The situation of the working class certainly changed a great deal over the course of the century, and there were always those who were better off than others (and there were differences between the rural poor and those in cities, and so forth).
I just thought it was important to point out the discrepancy between the cosy image of Sunday lunches and a piano in the parlour, and the desperate, crushing, murderous poverty (in all senses of the word) that millions of people experienced throughout the 19th century and, indeed, into the 20th.
In certain model industrial towns such as Saltaire (and the other one that I can’t remember the name of - Robert Owen), the industrialist owner provided leisure activities for the workers and their families, such as boating lakes and improving lectures.
From my Victorian readings, I’d say that children (at least those who weren’t pressed into work) were encouraged to engage in educational activities suitable to their genders. Boys got to do more adventurous stuff like exploring, whittling, and making engineering projects like magic lanterns and model ships (see The Dangerous Book for Boys for an updated version of this). Girls were encouraged to practice crafts such as embroidery and decoupage, but also learned gracious entertainment such as memorizing poetry and playing piano. (This assumes a certain level of family income, of course.) Very young children of both genders might play together doing things such as bowling hoops, but they were segregated soon enough.
Sleeping.
Owen’s original factory and community was at New Lanark in Scotland, I believe. He later, much less successfully, attempted to set up a socialist community in Indiana.
I think much of this is veering fairly far into middle class territory again.
Music Halls - these were immensely popular, day to day leisure would generally entail pubs and beerhouses
Occasionally there would be works outings in those new fangled trains,especially to the seaside but for most this was a rare treat, late Victorians might have access to a bicycle - these became very popular to the extent that some cycling clubs were able to build surprisingly substantial clubhouses.
Football began to become more popular both as participation and watching, as did rugby
Local fairs were at least annual events, a walk in the local park became a popular activity, along with listening to the band in the ornate bandstands
During this period you have to consider British society was very sharply delineated, to the extent that trades workers might well live in one area, all the supervisors might live on the same street, and pubs, beer houses and other leisure activities often frequented in a similar stratified way.
During this time previously popular working class sports were banned, such as cock fighting, bull baiting.
Also, the use of smallholdings which became the allotments was not only a leisure activity, it was often a useful food source.
Drinking, for those who could afford it. And all but the very poorest could find a few pennies for drink, which was cheap and ubiquitous.
Many societies sprang up to encourage the working classes to be clean, sober and religious, but drinking to excess was very widely practised.