Pastimes were primarily a male activity. Of St Ives' 3,000 residents, no more than 500 were adult males. Over 50 clubs and societies catered to those men's interests in the 1800s. Read on to learn about the invention of leisure for the working man, and of St Ives clubs and societies.
Early leisure
Before the 1800s working men had little time or money for leisure. Employers would have worked their men seven days a week if they could, but Sunday was a holy day. It was the only day off from a week of hard physical labour and long working hours. Employees used spare time in recovery. A decent man spent at least part of Sunday in church or chapel. Many passed their time in the alehouse.
Associated with idleness and delinquency, leisure was something only the middle and upper classes enjoyed. For what little entertainment they had available, working men went to the pub where they could play skittles, quoits and pitch and toss. Invariably these games involved gambling.
Outdoor pastimes included bloodsports. Cockfighting, dog fighting and ratting were common. Badger baiting and bull baiting involved the use of dogs.
Time off
With such intense working hours, St Monday was a common problem for employers. Workers paid on Saturday often had some money left on Monday to spend. They also invariably had a fuzzy head on Monday morning. Not turning up for work on Monday became something of a tradition.
The Early Closing Association, formed in 1842, established branches in key manufacturing towns and lobbied Government to give workers Saturday afternoon off for leisure in return for a full day's work on Mondays. Some factory owners adopted a Saturday half day starting from 2.00pm, ensuring their workers arrived on Monday with a clear head and positive attitude.
The Bank Holidays Act 1871 allowed workers some Mondays off with pay. By the 1890s employers had universally adopted a half day Saturday. In the second half of the 1800s wage levels improved.
It's no coincidence football clubs played their matches traditionally on Saturday afternoons. With time off and a rail network providing cheap travel, working-class supporters in villages and towns throughout England followed their club. Governing bodies organised sports as we know them today, with written rules, permanent venues, precise times and professional players.
Leisure in St Ives
With seventy licensed premises, the pub was certainly where many St Ivians sought entertainment. Some St Ives clubs took the name of a local pub, providing changing facilities and a place to retire after a game.
Outdoor entertainment was also prominent. St Ivians played bowls at the time of Edmund Pettis' survey of 1728. His map of the town centre shows an area for bowling at the current junction of East Street and St John's Road. The area was notorious, being a meeting place for pugilists. The Cambridge Chronicle and Journal in 1816 reported on bull baiting at St Ives.
An 1813 newspaper report of St Ives Cricket Club is the earliest recorded club. In 1837 a match between '11 gentlemen of the town (formerly belonging to the old St Ives Cricket Club) and 11 gentlemen of the new club' took place. Business and landowners, rather than working men, were the most likely members.
The first record of a club for working men is the St Ives Unicorn Cricket Club and their match at St Ives against Hemingford in 1851. Bad weather stopped play. The umpire awarded Hemingford the match. Players enjoyed an excellent dinner provided by Thomas Earl, owner of the Unicorn and several other pubs and shops in the town, the evening spent in 'friendship and conviviality'.
The Unicorn was one of the two most important hotels in St Ives (the other being the Golden Lion). It occupied the building in the Broadway currently Wadsworth's wine merchants and the current site of the Constitutional Hall.
St Ives clubs and societies
Below is a list of St Ives clubs and societies formed before 1914, in date order. Some may be older than the date shown. Where no date of origin is traceable, the date used is that of the first newspaper report.
The list excludes clubs or societies with a direct religious attachment, for example, the St Ives Society for the Propagation of the Bible or the St Ives Christian Endeavour Society.
Several of the organisations still exist, although some disbanded for a period before reforming. Where there is a current website, the name forms a link. Only three occupy their original location, being St Ives Rowing Club, the Literary Institute and St Ives Bowls Club.
| 1813 | St Ives Cricket Club |
| 1836 | St Ives Meeting Club |
| 1840 | St Ives Harmonic Society |
| 1842 | The St Ives Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge |
| 1844 | St Ives Chess Club |
| 1847 | St Ives Homiletical Society |
| 1848 | St Ives Temperance Society |
| 1850 | St Ives Young Men's Society |
| St Ives Town Cricket Club | |
| 1851 | St Ives Unicorn Cricket Club |
| 1852 | St Ives Musical Society |
| 1854 | St Ives Union Book Society |
| St Ives Mutual Improvement Society | |
| 1857 | St Ives Albion Cricket Club |
| 1858 | St Ives Gazette Cricket Club |
| 1859 | St Ives Tradesmen's Cricket Club |
| St Ives Junior Cricket Club | |
| 1861 | St Ives Private Elocution Society |
| 1862 | St Ives Victoria Cricket Club |
| St Ives Town Brass Band | |
| 1865 | St Ives Rowing Club |
| 1866 | St Ives Britannia Cricket Club |
| Literary Institute | |
| 1867 | St Ives Philharmonic Society |
| St Ives Wellington Cricket Club | |
| 1873 | Ivo Strollers |
| 1876 | St Ives Flower Show |
| 1877 | St Ives Bicycle Club |
| St Ives (Cottagers) Horticultural Society | |
| 1880 | St Ives Microscopical Society |
| St Ives String Band | |
| 1881 | St Ives & District Angling Society |
| 1883 | St Ives Choral Society |
| St Ives Lawn Tennis Club | |
| 1887 | St Ives Town Football Club |
| 1888 | St Ives Fox Terrier Club |
| 1889 | St Ives Liberal Cricket Club |
| St Ives Ornithological Society | |
| 1892 | St Ives Recreation Club (tennis, quoits, croquet, cricket) |
| 1893 | St Ives Reading Club |
| 1897 | St Ives Constitutional Club |
| Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Gathering | |
| St Ives (Hunts) & District Canine Society | |
| St Ives Amateur Athletic Club | |
| St Ives Quoit Club | |
| St Ives & District Sailing Club |
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| 1900 | St Ives Working Men's Quoits Club |
| 1904 | St Ives Parliamentary Debating Society |
| 1905 | St Ives Fanciers' Society (pigeons) |
| 1908 | St Ives Arthurians FC |
| St Ives Bowls Club |
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