Because they did not yet have
their own clubhouses many of the early rugby and
soccer clubs would have been founded, met and even
changed before matches, in a local public house.
Indeed if anything rivaled sport in popular activity
and entertainment at this time it was 'the pub'.
Villages in the mining valleys had a tremendous
number of public houses and beer-shops per head
of the population and before licensing laws were
introduced they were open the greater part of the
day. A description of a pub at this time is given
by Bryn Lewis, whose father kept the New Inn Hotel
in Clydach Vale.
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There was over eighteen
pumps in the big bar alone and there was
a small bar that men in working clothes
weren't allowed in. On a Friday pay day,
we'd have 23 people serving behind the bar,
and when the hooter went for image of the
communities of the South Wales the men to
come up we'd start drawing the pints of
beer and put them under the counter . .
. There was a lot of drunkenness and nearly
every Saturday night a lot of fighting .
. . Women were only allowed in the 'jug
and Bottle' . . . only about half a dozen
women came in altogether to drink . . .
I never saw women drink until I went to
London in 1926. Colliers would drink eleven
or twelve pints, and the beer was stronger
then ... They played dominoes, rings, bagatelle
... quoits ...
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Why was drinking so widespread?
Drinking beer was as popular in the rural areas
of Wales as it was in the valleys and it was much
preferred to drinking water, milk or tea. This letter
sent by a miner to a newspaper in 1881 gives some
help in finding an explanation for this:-
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How would these very good
people (who want pubs to be closed on a
Sunday) like to live days, weeks and months
underground without a sign of the sun, and
then on a wet Sunday to keep within doors
all the sunless hours, except while attending
divine worship? Oh, these very generous
people have their nice cosy Clubs or homes
which they enjoy every day. But the collier
has to live in discomfort in a small house.
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Drunkenness was one result of
this, though the amount of it was often exaggerated
by campaigners against pubs and drinking (the Temperance
Movement). In 1881 in Glamorgan the place with the
highest number of convictions for drunkenness (Pontypridd)
had 9.1 convictions for every 1,000 of its population.
By the end of the 19th century drunkenness had declined
a great deal. Some of this was due to the campaigning
of the Temperance Movement, but it also had much
to do with the supply of purer drinking water, the
building of halls and libraries where people could
meet and the growing popularity of open-air sport.
