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Sporting history in the collections we care for

The restored statue of the Wrestlers at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden, North Yorkshire.
The Wrestlers at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden, North Yorkshire | © National Trust Images/James Dobson

Taking part in sports is a popular pastime all over the world. Learn about the art and collections we look after with connections to sport throughout history, from the origins of the Olympics to the codification of croquet.

Sporting culture in our collections

Whether played for fun, to put physical skills to the test or to entertain a crowd, sport has a long history in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

From the equipment and spaces used for different games to accounts and artistic representations of sporting activities, objects and places in our care are a rich resource for learning about the popularity and evolution of various sports through the centuries, many of which are still played today.

Early sports

The Ancient Greeks are credited with the introduction of organised sport, holding the first Olympic Games in 776 BCE. This event included sports like running and hockey, and quickly grew to include boxing, javelin and discus. In its earliest days, sport was closely connected with warfare, and sporting competitions demonstrated individual strength and physical prowess.

Italian marble sculpture, An Athlete (after Polykleitos and restored by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi), Roman, early 2nd century AD, marble copy of a bronze original attributed to Polykleitos. The full-length youth stands resting his left leg against a tree trunk, his right hand raised to his shoulder holds an aryballos from which he pours oil into his left hand lying horizontally halfway across his body
An Athlete, marble copy of a bronze original attributed to Polykleitos, Roman, early 2nd century AD, in the collection of Petworth, West Sussex | © National Trust Images/Stuart Cox

Athletics

This marble sculpture at Petworth House in West Sussex is a Roman copy after a bronze original attributed to Polykleitos. The athlete is shown raising his right hand and holding a flask, or aryballos, from which he pours oil into his other hand. During training and competition, Greek athletes were typically naked and they applied oil to their bodies before exercise.

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Cricket

The earliest known ‘creckett’ reference dates to 1598. Growing in popularity, the game spread internationally in the 19th century as a consequence of the British Empire, and remains popular around the world today.

Oil painting portrait of John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745-1799), wearing the robes he wore to the Coronation of George III. Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, by Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA, 1769, in the collection of Knole, Kent | © National Trust Images/John Hammond

Knole, Kent

John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745–99), was a keen cricketer and hosted games at Knole, his home in Kent. He also called for women to be allowed to play, writing: ‘What is human life but a game of cricket and, if so, why should not the ladies play it as well as we.’

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Tennis

Modern lawn tennis evolved in the late 19th century, and had deep 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.

One of a set of four Tudor tennis balls of different sizes, made of leather and possibly stuffed with moss, at Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire. It's no longer spherical, and looks grubby
One of a set of four Tudor tennis balls from Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire | © National Trust Images/Phil Evans

Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire

This is one of the Tudor-era tennis balls found in the Long Gallery at Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire during its restoration. The balls are made of leather stitched together and thought to be stuffed with moss.

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Croquet

One of the places in our care has a special role in the story of croquet. The rules were codified at Chastleton House and Gardens, Oxfordshire, by Walter Whitmore Jones in 1866. Jones was born and lived at Chastleton, and had a passion for inventing games. Croquet is thought to have been imported from France around this time, derived from the French game ‘paille-maille’, where players used wooden mallets to hit balls.

Painting showing two people playing croquet with a castle behind them, housed at Dorneywood, Buckinghamshire
Detail from ‘Ave Silvae Dornii’ mural by Rex Whistler, 1928, from the collection of Dorneywood, Buckinghamshire | © National Trust Images/John Hammond

Dorneywood, Buckinghamshire

Croquet is shown as part of an allegorical panel by Rex Whistler at Dorneywood, Buckinghamshire. He painted it for Sir Courtauld-Thomson to separate the front door and the hall of his house. Although the garden pictured in the larger panel is imagined, the walled croquet lawn shown is real and still in use.

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Swimming and diving

Swimming, whether in a pool, lake or river, remains a popular way to exercise, cool off on a warm day, or compete – as captured in this account from Beningbrough.

A scan of the front cover of a swimming competition programme at the Bath Club from the collection at Beningbrough, Yorkshire
Swimming competition programme from the collection at Beningbrough, Yorkshire | © National Trust Images

Beningbrough, Yorkshire

During the 1890s and 1900s, the Dawnays who lived at Beningbrough were a sporty family. The most accomplished of them was Vere, the youngest daughter, who was a champion golfer and swimmer. Her son later wrote, ‘she was a medal-winning high diver and family legend had it that Queen Victoria came to the Bath Club where a special platform had been built for her, and sank forwards, murmuring ‘My God! My God!’ as mama executed her swallow dive backwards.’

Billiards

A book of 1674, called 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…’. We don’t know much about the people who made these tables, but it was a very specialised craft, with a huge amount of skill involved in getting the bed as flat as possible so that balls would run smoothly. 

The billiard room at Knole, Kent, showing a billiards table and large paintings on the wall behind it.
The billiard room at Knole, Kent | © National Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel

Knole, Kent

Very few early billiard tables survive, making this late 17th-century mahogany-framed table at Knole very rare. Early billiard cues, like those shown resting on the table, were slightly curved at the tip.

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Horse racing

The 15th and 16th centuries saw a rise in the popularity of equestrian sports. Racehorses were the sports cars of their day and proud owners commissioned artists to paint them. Racehorses feature in many of the 11,000 paintings in our care.

A painting of the racehorse Hambletonian by George Stubbs (1724–1806), at Mount Stewart House, County Down, Northern Ireland. One man in a top hat holds the horse's bridle while another holds a cloth to rub the horse down.
Hambletonian, Rubbing Down by George Stubbs, 1800, at Mount Stewart, County Down | © National Trust Images

Mount Stewart, County Down

One of the most famous paintings in our collection is Hambletonian, Rubbing Down by George Stubbs (1724–1806), a 12ft-wide painting at Mount Stewart, County Down. Hambletonian, a racehorse owned by Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, had won a thrilling victory at Newmarket in 1799.

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A collection of statues and paintings in the hallway of the North Gallery at Petworth House and Park, West Sussex

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