Bowling is older that you think
There are many games that involve rolling or throwing balls at targets (bocce, bolla, bolle, boules); the game of bowling has been around for millennia, although the rules weren't set in stone until quite recently, perhaps not until the 18th century. Bowling was played indoors and out: records show that the oldest, used bowling green is in Southampton, England, and has been in operation since 1299. Records show that, at least in England, bowling was a game for both the upper and lower classes. "The most comprehensive presentment of higher status men for bowling was in Queenborough in 1500, when the jury presented that the ... mayor and all his brethren and many others living within this town are common players of a certain game called 'le Bowles'." [1]
Henry VIII had a bowling alley installed in Hampton Court; a partial view of it appears in a manuscript image but no trace of it (the alley) has survived. Among the first alterations King Henry had made to Hampton Court, after his 1529 acquisition, was to have built a 'close tennys play' (an indoor tennis court) and a ‘close bowling alley'. [2]
Lawn bowls, also known as bowling on the green or lawn bowling, probably originated in France and some think that it was brought to England by Norman invaders, although there is no evidence of this and no references to bowling, in England, during the reign of William I. At Westminister, indoor bowling alleys began to appear in the 1460s. In Southwark the first reference to an indoor bowling alley appears around 1500. [3]
The oldest references to bowling describe a game more like quints or horseshoes: a stone was tossed towards a target with the object of getting as close to the target as possible. Later, the game was changed: the stones were replaced by balls, made of wood or stone, where were rolled towards an upright target in order to knock it down. In France, the game was known by the Latin word for ball, 'boule', which became the Anglicized 'bowl'.
While the game has been popular in England for centuries, it was not always legal. Edward III, in 1366, outlawed bowling because it was a distraction from archery practice. In 1477, Edward IV issued a similar edict against "bowles, closh, kayles, hand-in and hand-out". In 1511 Henry VIII [4] enacted a statute banning "Tenys, Closshe, Dise, Cardes, Bowles". In 1541, he banned labourers, apprentices and servants from bowling except during Christmas and then only in their master's house and only with their master present. Any one playing bowls outside their own premises could be fined 6s. 8d (between $250 and $2400 in today's money based on either straight conversion or relative labor costs). However, people with property with a yearly value of more than £100 could buy a license to play on their own private green. This ensured that only the wealthy could play.
The Ordinances of the Guild of Spectacle Makers approved by the King's Justices in 1630, state that:
An English statue of 1541, which banned any games that distracted from archery practice, included bowling.
[1] Jones, p187
[2] Spelthorne Hundred
[3] Horrox, p288
[4] I am, I am
[5] Dargue
[6] Jones, p187
[7] Clark, p153
Beresford, M. W.; Joseph, J. K. S. Medieval England: An Aerial Survey. Cambridge University Press, Nov 15, 1979
Carlin, Martha. Medieval Southwark. Hambledon Press, 1996
Clark, Linda. Of Mice and Men: Image, Belief and Regulation in Late Medieval England. Boydell Press, 2005.
Dargue, William. 2008-2016 A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames . . . from A to Y.
Horrox, Rosemary W.; Ormrod, Mark. A Social History of England, 1200-1500. Cambridge University Press, Aug 10, 2006.
Jones, Karen. Gender and Petty Crime in Late Medieval England: The Local Courts in Kent, 1460-1560. Boydell Press, 2006
Laughton, Jane. Life in a Late Medieval City: Chester, 1275-1520. Windgather Press, 2008.
Pitcher, John. Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Volume 11. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, Mar 1, 1999
'Spelthorne Hundred: Hampton Court Palace, architectural description', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2, General; Ashford, East Bedfont With Hatton, Feltham, Hampton With Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton, ed. William Page (London, 1911), pp. 371-379. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp371-379 [accessed 8 November 2016].
Survey of London: Volume 13, St Margaret, Westminster, Part II: Whitehall I, ed. Montagu H Cox and Philip Norman (London, 1930), British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol13/pt2 [accessed 25 November 2016].
'The Tennis Courts, etc.', in Survey of London: Volume 14, St Margaret, Westminster, Part III: Whitehall II, ed. Montagu H Cox and G Topham Forrest (London, 1931), pp. 37-45. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol14/pt3/pp37-45 [accessed 13 October 2016].
Henry VIII had a bowling alley installed in Hampton Court; a partial view of it appears in a manuscript image but no trace of it (the alley) has survived. Among the first alterations King Henry had made to Hampton Court, after his 1529 acquisition, was to have built a 'close tennys play' (an indoor tennis court) and a ‘close bowling alley'. [2]
Lawn bowls, also known as bowling on the green or lawn bowling, probably originated in France and some think that it was brought to England by Norman invaders, although there is no evidence of this and no references to bowling, in England, during the reign of William I. At Westminister, indoor bowling alleys began to appear in the 1460s. In Southwark the first reference to an indoor bowling alley appears around 1500. [3]
The oldest references to bowling describe a game more like quints or horseshoes: a stone was tossed towards a target with the object of getting as close to the target as possible. Later, the game was changed: the stones were replaced by balls, made of wood or stone, where were rolled towards an upright target in order to knock it down. In France, the game was known by the Latin word for ball, 'boule', which became the Anglicized 'bowl'.
While the game has been popular in England for centuries, it was not always legal. Edward III, in 1366, outlawed bowling because it was a distraction from archery practice. In 1477, Edward IV issued a similar edict against "bowles, closh, kayles, hand-in and hand-out". In 1511 Henry VIII [4] enacted a statute banning "Tenys, Closshe, Dise, Cardes, Bowles". In 1541, he banned labourers, apprentices and servants from bowling except during Christmas and then only in their master's house and only with their master present. Any one playing bowls outside their own premises could be fined 6s. 8d (between $250 and $2400 in today's money based on either straight conversion or relative labor costs). However, people with property with a yearly value of more than £100 could buy a license to play on their own private green. This ensured that only the wealthy could play.
The Ordinances of the Guild of Spectacle Makers approved by the King's Justices in 1630, state that:
‘if any Apprentice shall misbehave himself towards his Master or Mistress . . . Or be any Drunkard haunter of Taverns, Ale Houses Bowling Alleys or other lewd and suspected Places of evil Company . . . he shall be brought to the Hall of the said Company . . . and shall be stripped from the middle upwards and there be whipped.' [5]
An English statue of 1541, which banned any games that distracted from archery practice, included bowling.
The penalty for keeping a house for illegal games, including a bowling alley, was 40s, while that for players was 6s 8d. .. Local courts must have considered the 40s fine for gaming houses and bowling alleys excessive, for it was only recorded as being imposed once, on William Rouse, tavern keeper of New Romney, in 1553." [6]
Towns and cities drew on national rules when drafting their own regulations. In September 1496 Worcester, reviewing its existing regulations, established a new ordinance which banned citizens from playing any games prohibited by law, including the newly re-criminalised sports of tennis and bowls. In September 1504 Rye passed an ordinance prohibiting servants from playing tennis or other illegal games on workdays, which was more generous than the 1495 statute that only allowed such games to be played at Christmas. In 1508, however, a Lyme Regis jury went beyond the statute forbidding burgesses from playing dice at all. Juries presented men who played illegal games. In October 1496 a Chishester jury presented two men for playing closh (and indoor bowling game) contrary to the statute. ... Juries presented men who ran professional outfits, such as 'a kayle house' or 'a Closshe house', or who possessed a tennis court or a bowling alley. Patrick Russel, a London gardener, was accused of keeping bowling alleys in his house in the parish of the Holy Sepulcher in 1499. [7]
[1] Jones, p187
[2] Spelthorne Hundred
[3] Horrox, p288
[4] I am, I am
[5] Dargue
[6] Jones, p187
[7] Clark, p153
Bibliography:
Beresford, M. W.; Joseph, J. K. S. Medieval England: An Aerial Survey. Cambridge University Press, Nov 15, 1979
Carlin, Martha. Medieval Southwark. Hambledon Press, 1996
Clark, Linda. Of Mice and Men: Image, Belief and Regulation in Late Medieval England. Boydell Press, 2005.
Dargue, William. 2008-2016 A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames . . . from A to Y.
Horrox, Rosemary W.; Ormrod, Mark. A Social History of England, 1200-1500. Cambridge University Press, Aug 10, 2006.
Jones, Karen. Gender and Petty Crime in Late Medieval England: The Local Courts in Kent, 1460-1560. Boydell Press, 2006
Laughton, Jane. Life in a Late Medieval City: Chester, 1275-1520. Windgather Press, 2008.
Pitcher, John. Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Volume 11. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, Mar 1, 1999
'Spelthorne Hundred: Hampton Court Palace, architectural description', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2, General; Ashford, East Bedfont With Hatton, Feltham, Hampton With Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton, ed. William Page (London, 1911), pp. 371-379. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp371-379 [accessed 8 November 2016].
Survey of London: Volume 13, St Margaret, Westminster, Part II: Whitehall I, ed. Montagu H Cox and Philip Norman (London, 1930), British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol13/pt2 [accessed 25 November 2016].
'The Tennis Courts, etc.', in Survey of London: Volume 14, St Margaret, Westminster, Part III: Whitehall II, ed. Montagu H Cox and G Topham Forrest (London, 1931), pp. 37-45. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol14/pt3/pp37-45 [accessed 13 October 2016].
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