Leisure in an industrial town : A case study of Rochdale, Lancashire, 1880-1939

The thesis contains two complementary strands of
inquiry. On the one hand, there is an examination of the
way leisure was included within a way of life; the home and
the neighbourhood being key elements in this account. There
is a description of the parameters set by paid and unpaid
work on the extent of people's spare time, and what money
they were able to spend during it. Note is taken of how
patterns of activity and spending differed when childhood,
youth and adulthood are compared. On the other hand, there
is a survey of the provenance and growth of those institutions
arising in the period, together with a picture of the progress
of those already present by 1880. The six decades preceding
1939 witnessed a massive growth in the commercial provision
for spare time activity; the pub, music hall, and railway
companies provide a basis for this, but the cinema, dance hall,
radio and gramophone soon outpace them. Over the same space
of time, the church and secular societies cease to retain
their role as an amenity and as a force for the organisation
of people's spare time.
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