Sport in Urban England: Middlesbrough, 18701914

(Hardback)

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This book examines the largely unexplored social and cultural history of Middlesbrough and the leisure habits and opportunities of its people. It adds to existing studies of urban Britain and provides a specific study on the relationship between leisure and urbanization and industrialization. The book furthers understanding of urban sport and urban history by demonstrating how sport can be shaped by urban growth, whether directly or indirectly, and equally, how sport can also affect the way in which a town develops. This book shows how the study of sport in a particular setting provides another means of examining relationships between different social groups and within a large urban landscape. This book views the towns sporting history alongside the development of Middlesbrough itself and within the context of the growth of sport in Britain more widely. Furthermore, as a study in urban history, this book addresses existing gaps in our knowledge of the development of towns and cities by examining the towns sport. Through a detailed examination of local newspapers and archival sources, this book reveals the depth and diversity of the towns sporting culture. In particular, it illustrates the role of the middle classes in the development of clubs, and the importance of class and social relations in determining an individuals access to sport. As a consequence, the study also relates how the towns working class populace was often excluded from the sporting culture, and shows the lack of sporting opportunities available to women. Amateurism is explored through the initial rejection of professional football, but the book also demonstrates the increased popularity of the professional game during this period. In addition, in view of Middlesbroughs migrant population, the extent of footballs role in forming and reinforcing local and regional identities will be examined.

Reviews

Northern Englands Victorian "new town" of Middlesbrough offered a variety of sports to its residents. The amateur ethos held for the elite activities of boating and golf, while elite and working class alike enjoyed cricket. Both professional and amateur football (soccer) dominated the city. Budds case study confirms many theories of the role of sports while modifying or overturning others. Sports were class-based, but the elite maintained a good deal of control through managing and/or officiating most athletic endeavors, regardless of class. Sports helped establish a local identity while they provided a healthy and morally uplifting outlet for working-class residents. Largely populated by immigrants from throughout the British Isles and Continental Europe, sports helped create a cohesive identity. Sporting opportunities for women multiplied and were encouraged, as long as they did not impact either the participants beauty or femininity. Both sexes enjoyed swimming and tennis, though cycling had both champions and naysayers who feared damage to the womans reproductive capabilities. Perhaps the biggest challenge to the sporting culture came from the towns rapid expansion, which made it difficult for the various clubs to find suitable space for playing fields. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *
This impressive and meticulously-researched book is an important contribution to the historiography of British sport. Not only does it shed fresh light on a largely neglected topicnamely, the history of sport in urban Britainbut it also provides perceptive and original insights into the vibrancy of the Victorian era more generally. Using Middlesbrough as its case study, Catherine Budd reveals not only the origins and extent of this frontier towns rich and diverse sporting culture, but also how deep sport was part of the towns social fabric. In engaging with contemporary debates, such as over amateurism and professionalism, Budd skillfully teases out the complexities of Victorian cultural and social relations at a time of great upheaval and the role of sport in creating and re-creating social identities. In particular, Sport in Urban England demonstrates how soccer emerges as the game of the people during its formative years as a professional sport and its essential place in the popular culture of Middlesbroughs overwhelmingly industrial working class populace. -- Neil Carter, De Montfort University
This book provides a fascinating, well-researched, and important account of the sporting world of perhaps the most famous late Victorian and Edwardian new town, Middlesbrough, a predominantly working-class urban port and leading iron and steel industrial center. Particularly interesting is Catherine Budds detailed, authoritative, and engaging analysis of the way a small male middle-class minority, with an amateur ethos, was able to dominate most of its sports clubs, organizations, and leagues, limiting opportunities for women and the less well-off. The major exception was football, which gained huge working-class interest and massive local press coverage, and which eventually saw Middlesbrough briefly with two strong professional sides capable of competing on the national stage. With its clear structure and rich detail it should appeal to the scholar, student, and general reader alike. -- Mike Huggins, University of Cumbria
Catherine Budd offers here a significant contribution to the scholarship on sport in urban, industrial Britain, reasserting the dominant role of class on sports provision and participation. This study is more than a history of sport, as it links the development of clubs and other sporting organizations with social and cultural change in an industrializing town, one that experienced massive inward migration of male workers. The research is local but the conclusions have much wider implications. -- Wray Vamplew, University of Stirling
Perhaps there is no better example of how the Victorian drive for industrialization transformed British society than the astonishing story of Middleborough, a small town that grew to Ironopolis in less than fifty years. Catherine Budds excellent study provides lucid insight into how sport became an important component in urbanization. She argues convincingly that sport helped shape urban life and that it was influential in defining civic identity, class, and gendered relations. This book is a must for historians, sociologists, and sport scientists, and undoubtedly advances our understanding of sport and civic identity in a tumultuous period of history. -- Brad Beaven, University of Portsmouth

Author Bio

Catherine Budd is associate lecturer of history at De Montfort University.