THE GOLD MEDAL FOR GREAT DAYS OUT THIS SUMMER
WITH the Olympic Games and Paralympics dominating the competitive landscape from the end of July with a feast of athletics, swimming, rowing, sailing, boxing, cycling and other disciplines, it promises to be a magnificent summer of sport. There are also major events in cricket, golf, snooker, tennis and horse racing, not to mention croquet. Britain has a proud history of developing many of the sports and, as MARTIN PHILLIPS reveals, the National Trust can boast a wealth of sporting heritage at its many properties, from art works and artefacts to early games venues and links to the origins of certain sports. For football fans looking forward to Euro 24 in June, the Trust also cares for the birthplace of one of England’s most passionate fans and the composer of the first football anthem...
DOVER’S HILL, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
This historical amphitheatre, near Chipping Campden, was the site of the original English Olympic Games, which began 412 years ago in 1612 and continues with the annual Cotswold Olimpicks, this year on Friday, May 31. Founded by lawyer Robert Dover, the games survived the rising tide of puritanism, though they were suspended during the Civil War before being revived under Charles II.
Core activities were athletics, throwing, jumping, wrestling and horse racing. Today there are still running races, tug o’ wars and the Championship of the Hill, a team event with wacky games. Meanwhile, individual competitors contest The Champion of the Hill has entrants compete in four disciplines: Static Jump, Spurning the Barre (like the Scottish tossing the caber), Hammer Throw and Putting the Shot.The most notable change in the original sports was the development of Cotswold Wrestling into the localised Shin Kicking contest which still takes place, though soft shoes must now be worn and straw used to protect shins.
ICKWORTH, SUFFOLK
More than 2,500 years after the first Olympic Games in 776 BC, Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, commissioned elaborate friezes portraying the games and classical Greek mythology to decorate the outside of his neoclassical mansion.
Panels under the portico entrance to the rotunda include scenes of archery, chariot racing, runners and wrestlers, though some artistic licence was taken since the runners are clothed when the original athletes would have performed naked, and archery was not an original Olympic activity.A chariot race scene may have been a tribute to the 1st Earl, who was renowned as a horse breeder and trainer.
PETWORTH, WEST SUSSEX
The art collection at 17th Century Petworth House is among the finest in the National Trust’s care and includes two notable statues celebrating the Olympics.The first is a marble Roman copy – after a bronze original attributed to ancient Greek sculptor Polykleitos – and portrays an athlete holding a flask – or aryballos – of oil, which naked Greek athletes typically applied to their bodies before training or competition. Bare-knuckle boxing, which featured in the early Olympics, was a national obsession in early 19th century Britain and the second statue, by Rossi, portrays a boxer of the time, perhaps champion Tom Cribb.
SNOWSHILL MANOR, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Cycling has been part of the Olympic Games since the first modern Olympics in 1896 and bicycles were a fascination for eccentric collector Charles Wade (1883-1956) who loved anything hand-crafted and made with skill.
His former manor home is a treasure trove of quirky and curious objects, from mechanical doorbells and a miniature village to suits of armour and a variety of masks. The attic space – named Hundred Wheels – displays his large collection of bone-shaker bikes and hobby horses.
FELL FOOT, LAKE DISTRICT
Sailing made its Olympic debut at the 1900 Paris Games and Fell Foot – once the setting for a prestigious villa – has been a significant recreational estate hosting water sports for more than two centuries. Today, it is a popular spot for sailing, rowing, canoeing, kayaking and paddle-boarding on Windermere – England’s largest lake. With modern changing rooms and stunning Lake
District views it’s the ideal base for getting out onto the water.
MOSELEY ROAD BATHS, BIRMINGHAM
Moseley Road Baths is the only indoor baths in the country built before 1914 to have continuously hosted swimming since it first opened in 1907.
The Grade II listed property, in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, had been threatened with closure until, in 2018, a charitable organisation set up by swimmers, local residents and campaigners, took over its running.The seven-year “Diving In” project for the restoration and development of the baths has been achieved by the Moseley Road Baths CIO with a coalition of organisations which includes the National Trust.
PENRHYN CASTLE, GWYNEDD
Snooker is today one of the top 10 most watched sports worldwide on TV but even back in 1674 a book – The Compleat Gamester – described billiards as “much approved of and played by most nations of Europe, especially in England, there being few towns of note therein which hath not a public billiard table”.
Few early billiard tables survive and one at Penrhyn Castle is particularly rare, built entirely of enamelled slate in 1844 by George Eugene Magnus for the 1st Baron Penrhyn. Others at National Trust properties include late 17th Century mahogany-framed tables at Knole, Kent, and Nostell, West Yorkshire; an early electronic one at Tyntesfield, Bristol; and an 1880s table at Polesden Lacey, Surrey, which may have been played on by King Edward VII.
CHASTLETON HOUSE, OXFORDSHIRE
The National Trust has a special role in the story of croquet because the rules of the sport were codified at Chastleton House by Walter Whitmore-Jones in 1866. Jones left his Oxford University degree, and a position in the Government’s war office, to try his hand at inventing games.
After limited success, he took up croquet and installed lawns at Chastleton. Realising there were no standard rules, he created them and founded the All England Croquet Club – which became the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, of Wimbledon fame. He tragically died from throat cancer, aged 41, in 1872.
LITTLE MORETON HALL, CHESHIRE
Modern lawn tennis evolved in the late 19th century and had roots in the medieval game “real tennis”, which was favoured by many royals, especially the Tudors. Allegedly Henry VIII was playing real tennis on his personal court at Hampton Court when his second wife Anne Boleyn was arrested.
A Tudor-era tennis ball was found in the Long Gallery at Little Moreton Hall during restoration work.The ball was made of leather, stitched together, and was thought to have been stuffed with moss.
SHEFFIELD PARK, EAST SUSSEX
Cricket was first played at Sheffield Park in 1845 when the opening batsman for home side Fletching, was 13-year-old schoolboy Henry Holroyd, the Viscount Pevensey. From
1881 to 1896, after Holroyd inherited the estate as 3rd Earl of Sheffield and transformed the ground into one of the most beautiful in England, it was the home of Lord Sheffield’s XI.
His team played nine first-class matches, the last of which, in 1896, came against the touring Australian side when 25,000 people were allowed to see the match, the visiting Prince of Wales and home batsman W. G. Grace. When a short-pitched delivery bounced so close to Grace’s face that it appeared to go through his famous beard, he demanded of the Australian captain, Harry Trott: “Here, what’s all this?”
ROYAL ISLE OF WIGHT GOLF COURSE
When the Royal Isle of Wight Golf Club opened at St Helens Duver in 1882 it was one of the first in England, had just nine holes – with sand dunes and gorse bushes for hazards and turf imported from Cumbria – and welcomed men only. It later came close to challenging the prominence of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and was also the source of rules of the game which still apply today.
The Prince of Wales, (later Edward VII) and other European royals were members and Edward’s sister Princess Beatrice was its president until her death. Celebrity members included actor David Niven.
Its fortunes waned amid post-war austerity and the land was given to the National Trust in 1961 as a nature reserve and open space for all.
MOUNT STEWART, COUNTY DOWN
The 15th and 16th centuries saw a rise in popularity of equestrian sports, with racehorses becoming the sports cars of their day. Consequently, many of the 11,000 paintings the National Trust cares for feature racehorses immortalised for their owners.
One of the most famous is the oil painting Hambletonian, Rubbing Down by George Stubbs, a 12ft wide canvas celebrating the horse of Mount Stewart owner Sir Henry Vane-Tempest which had won a thrilling victory at Newmarket in 1799. Vane-Tempest had good reason to commission a painting since he had bet 3,000 guineas (equivalent to £450,900 today) on Hambletonian.
LAMBERT’S AND CONEY’S CASTLE, DORSET
These hill forts would have been home to thriving Iron Age communities around the time the ancient Olympics were first held in Greece. Lambert’s Castle later hosted its own games with an annual fair from at least 1709 and possibly as early as 1459 until 1947, and the highlight of these events was a series of horse races on a racing track next to the fort. Sadly there is little evidence now of the Aintree of its day but visitors can still enjoy magnificent views across the Marshwood Vale and out to sea.
THE FIRS, WORCESTERSHIRE
Land of Hope and Glory composer Sir Edward Elgar, celebrated by a museum at his birthplace, The Firs, was a fanatical Wolverhampton Wanderers fan and is believed to have written the first ever football anthem.An avid cyclist, he would ride around the around the Worcestershire and Herefordshire countryside seeking inspiration for his music and, on match days, would take the train to see Wolves play.
He wrote He Banged The Leather For Goal in honour of the club’s 1890s striker Billy Malpass. Sports-mad Elgar, also a keen golfer, once sold his precious Gagliano violin to pay for an elaborate billiard table, and was passionate about horse racing, keeping a separate bank account for his racing bets.
He claimed he broke even each season but local bookmakers joked that gamblers should find out what Elgar was backing then bet on anything else because of his infallible skill in picking losers.