Emma Lile

Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans, Cardiff

Coinciding with a period of industrial growth and development that profoundly altered all spheres of daily life, the heyday of professional pedestrianism in south Wales reached its peak during the mid-nineteenth century. This rather quaint precursor of modern athletics, comprising an eclectic mixture of running and walking events of varying types and distances, straddled the transition from rural to urban by becoming increasingly structured and reliant on rules, regulations and accurate timekeeping. Pedestrian challenges signified the beginning of codified sports, which ousted traditional, primarily spontaneous, parish games from prominence and could be held equally well within the new towns as on turnpike roads and fields just outside. As communication systems across Britain improved, large crowds traveled from afar to witness the proceedings, and the sport became extremely fashionable. According to a reporter for Swansea's Cambrian newspaper in 1815, a `whole race of 50- mile-a-day men' had emerged, and soon `every county will have to boast of its pedestrian champion'. `What was before the disease of an individual', he continued rather concernedly:

has now become an epidemic; and where it will end I know not. Already several masters of numerous workmen assure me that they can scarcely keep them to business, and that all ambition has forsook them except that of going over a certain length of ground within a certain time ... The rage prevails, and those who in our workshops and manufactories were known as good hands, are now only desirous of proving that they have good legs.1

Professional pedestrianism had captured south-Walian imagination long before the onset of urbanisation, however, for since at least the late- seventeenth century footmen were employed as messengers and competitive runners by the gentry, who viewed any athletic success as a means of enhancing their own renown and social standing.2 For other working-class citizens not lucky enough to receive such patronage, pedestrianism offered a rare opportunity to achieve instant fame and fortune, owing to the high monetary sums staked on race results. Here was an activity where men of all backgrounds stood equal on the starting line, and where entrants willingly walked for many consecutive days if the financial rewards proved suitably tempting. Gambling was an integral element of the occasion, and for those accustomed to poverty and hardship, winning could mean the difference between starvation and survival.

As fields and countryside formerly used for games were industrially developed, so pedestrian contests required alternative facilities. These were frequently provided by shrewd local innkeepers who, while appearing saviours of the sport on the one hand, were also fully aware of the profit-making potential of such an enterprise. By arranging events either near or on the premises of their taverns, publicans were guaranteed healthy takings, as spectators and competitors alike quenched their thirst and laid their wagers over the bar. Demanding feats such as Mr Bruce Knight's 86-mile return trip from Cardiff to Brecon in thirty-three hours, in September 1804,3 and Mr John Townsend's 384-mile walk in August 1825, beginning at the Bear Inn, Brecon, and ending at the Wheat-Sheaf Inn, Hay on Wye, six days later,4 would have generated considerable monetary interest, and required plenty of fluids for all involved.

Although the largest bets were normally reserved for solitary challenges against clock or calendar, head-to-head matches also attracted eager punters. In August 1810, £168 was lodged as a deposit in the Brecon Bank backing militia officer Mr Williams, Jr., of Llwynhouse to complete the nineteen miles from Brecon to Abergavenny in three hours,5 while in February 1846 Aberdarians made `liberal appeals to their pockets'6 for a foot-race between local man Rees Meredith and Robinson, an Englishman. Such was Meredith's confidence that he gave his opponent three yards start, yet, rather than gaining on him and taking the lead, he fell further behind Robinson, who convincingly won the race by five yards. Fast and furious gambling took place in July 1851, when William Hopper of Morwinstow, Cornwall, attempted to walk fifty miles in twelve hours between Swansea and Bridgend for a stake of £12.7 Commencing at 6.00 a.m., the cattle dealer completed the task with thirty minutes to spare, despite wearing heavy laced boots weighing over 4½lbs. A glutton for punishment, Hopper duly undertook a similar feat the following day, only in a faster time and for double the stakes.

The prestige bestowed on talented athletes was so great that pedestrianism success could elevate local men to celebrated heroes, and during the 1840s, there emerged in Wales a superstar who became undisputed national champion and conqueror of many renowned English runners. John Davies (1822-c.1904), born in Llansanffraid-ym-Mechain, near Llanfyllin, Powys, but often travelling south to race, was nicknamed Y Cyw Cloff (`The Lame Chicken'), in recognition of his distinctive running style. His slight frame was ideal for distance events and he first came to prominence in 1844 as one half of a two-man team that trounced the English star John Tetlow at Cimdda Common, Llantrisant, in a contest watched by over 2,000 spectators.8 So infuriated by his defeat was Tetlow that he demanded a rematch against Davies alone, which was subsequently held over a mile of `fine level road' in Llanilltud Faerdref, near Llantrisant.9 Undeterred by the odds backing Tetlow at five-to-three favourite, Davies capitalised on an early lead by pulling away to win in a remarkable time of 4:45. As a result, the bookmakers purportedly lost about £1,000, and Tetlow £500, the latter blaming his defeat on travel fatigue after his journey from Manchester to Wales.

Following victories over Sergeant Rennie, (`The Running Sergeant'), William Bevan, and Howell Powell, Davies's unbeaten streak was eventually broken at Cimdda, in February 1845, when he finished twenty yards behind the Sheffield coal carrier Tom Maxfield.10 Allegations that a third runner, Welshman William Jackson, had fixed the finishing positions beforehand prompted a re-run, which was again embroiled in controversy when a fall by Maxfield during the race was viewed by Davies's supporters as a ploy to avoid losing. A third match, held at Lansdown, near Bath in December, finally settled the matter when, despite Maxfield's familiarity with the mile-long course, Davies stormed to a fifty-yard victory in just over five minutes.11

Davies's string of successes led to his immortalisation in various ballads, which marvelled at his remarkable speed by comparing him to hares, deer, and, the ultimate accolade, the eighteenth-century running legend Guto Nyth Brân, who famously ran seven miles before a kettle boiled. As the balladeer Edward Jones patriotically wrote following the Welshman's defeat of Maxfield:

Mawr yw ffrwst a thrwst y Saeson,

Maeddu'r Cymry yw eu hamcanion,

Ond fe fagwyd yng ngwlad Forgan

Un sy'n cario ar y cyfan.12

(The English have great bravado,

Their goal is to beat the Welsh,

But born in the county of Glamorgan

Is one who carries all our hopes)

After the race, successful punters won enough to afford a tasty goose on Christmas Day, and his supporters welcomed Davies's homecoming to Cardiff on the Prince of Wales steamer with rapturous applause. The ballad writer Ywain Meirion paid a fitting tribute to Davies's competitive career: `Ni wiw i Sais na Sgot na Gwyddel/Gynnig arno mewn un gornel'.13 (`It is no use for an Englishman, Scot or Irishman/To attempt to challenge him'). This was a practically invincible athlete, and an inspiration to all.

In the wake of the impressive performances of men like Davies, pedestrians in south Wales continued to strive for glory, confident in their abilities to succeed. A match `for no inconsiderable sum of money, or a sumptuous supper for a large party of friends'14 was held on the Swansea sands in February 1845, and created great interest, if only for the sheer size of one of the two competitors. Both adjudged `respectable tradesmen' by The Welshman, the one `if not weighing half a ton, is assuredly not far short of it, staple weight'. After the rather intriguing `doffing' of their `Benjamins' and appointing an umpire, the pair ran astonishingly quickly, with the lighter runner winning by a substantial margin.15

As they traversed the racing circuit many athletes grew so well-known that they adopted pseudonyms designed to reflect their athletic prowess. Examples of these included the `Welsh Bantam', `Pontypool Deer' and `Cwm Celin Stag', while the title `Flying Tailor' appeared especially common. Bell's Life of 11 April 1859 covered a 360-yard match at the Storey Arms, near Libanus, Breconshire, between William Jenkins, `The Flying Tailor' of Merthyr Tydfil, and the renowned pedestrian George Hopkins of Hirwaun, which attracted almost 4,000 spectators. Six years later, in September 1865, `The Flying Tailor' William Lewis, lost to William Moseley over 200 yards in a race at Neath, which according to the Cambrian generated much excitement.

Neath residents were treated to many a pedestrian feat, including, in August 1855, a rare appearance by a woman athlete, Isabella Melross, who traveled down from Scotland to demonstrate her stamina. Having walked an extraordinary 1,000 miles in 1,000 half-hours the previous year, Melross amazed spectators by completing 500 half-miles in 500 half-hours, and 500 quarter-miles in 500 quarter-hours.16 Not quite so impressive was a one-man event at the Gnoll Fields, Neath, in 1867, owing to the non-appearance of a second athlete. Challenged to a 100-yard dash by William Deer of the Railway Inn, William Aston, engineer on the Neath and Brecon Railway, failed to show up on the proposed date. This led to a host of railway-linked quips from the Cambrian, ridiculing Aston for failing to `get his steam up', owing to a `bust boiler' and an `out of order safety valve'. Undaunted, Deer set off alone and finished successfully to cheers from the crowd.17

In contrast to the more serious events, numerous novelty races were regularly held, involving such eccentricities as walking backwards, trundling wheelbarrows, and gathering potatoes. Man-against-horse events proved particularly popular, such as the trouncing of the cavalryman Lieutenant Tottenham over 200 yards by the runner Lieutenant Tute at Abergavenny in March 1840,18 as were the performance of amazing feats by the younger generation. In March 1839 a seven-year-old boy ran the seven miles from Risca to Newport in forty-five minutes for a sovereign wager, and beat the Tredegar coach into the bargain.19 Another child athlete, thirteen-year-old Mountjoy, Jr., followed in the footsteps of his celebrated pedestrian father by twice undertaking a sixty-four-mile return trip between Swansea and Neath within the space of a few days in March 1844. During the challenge he managed one forty-five-minute period of running half-a-mile forwards, walking three-quarters-of-a-mile backwards, running and hopping 100 yards each, picking up a hundred eggs with his mouth, and, finally, clearing twenty hurdles at 2 feet 4.5inches high.20 Evidently unaffected by such exertions, Mountjoy maintained his fitness well into the 1860s, completing a forty-mile walk around Swansea and Mumbles inside eight hours in April 1869.21

Such was the gruelling nature of many pedestrian events that even conscientious, well-trained athletes were susceptible to illness and injury, and dropping out of races was not uncommon. Cramp severely hindered Mr Williams Jr. of Llwynhouse, an officer in the Breconshire militia, thirteen miles through his nineteen-mile run from Brecon to Abergavenny in August 1810, and although managing to cross the finishing line, albeit in a slow time, he was immediately put to bed to recover.22 Some physical suffering was endured by Wilson in 1839, who removed his shoes while attempting to walk fifteen miles in two hours, such was the pain they caused,23 while in 1850 `The Flying Tailor' Jackson withdrew from a race on the Mumbles Road owing to exhaustion.24 Perhaps the greatest martyr for his cause, however, was Cardiffian William Gale who, in November 1880, traveled to the Lillie Bridge track, West Brompton, London, seeking to walk 2,500 miles in 1,000 hours.25 (The track, incidentally, was burned down in 1887 by a gang involved in betting at a professional sprinting match.)26 Under the watchful eye of seven judges, Gale `cheerfully' began his task on a bitterly cold evening on blister-inducing hard ground.27 Incredibly, he withstood all discomforts and `every form of bad weather', until January 1881 when, as reported in The Cambrian:

On the second signal being given at 4.30 a.m. on Tuesday morning he turned out as usual within a few seconds of time, but once on the path it was with the greatest difficulty that he could be prevailed upon to move, and after he had walked three laps (1460 yards) out of his allotted distance he stopped and flatly refused to move further, and at 4.57.56 he went into his house, and the match, as originally arranged, was at an end. He had then been walking for 1786 consecutive half hours in which he had covered the extraordinary distance of 2232 miles. A doctor was called in immediately and reported his condition wonderfully well, his pulse beating strongly at 88, only a trifle higher than usual. His breakdown was the most extraordinary as in all his previous walks he has never shown the slightest symptoms of cowardice. He slept heavily for about six hours when, after a hot bath, he once more turned out of his house on to the track, having previously announced his intention of endeavouring to complete the 2500 miles within the stipulated time ... Gale's excitability undoubtedly caused the collapse, and yet this is not to be wondered at: considering what he had undertaken and the wretched weather he had to encounter. It is intended to give him a benefit shortly to recompense him for his failure.28

Not all Gale's efforts were to be applauded, however, for earlier in his career, in December 1855, he was questioned by police regarding the validity of a walk of 1,300 half-miles in 1,300 half-hours in the White-Stile Fields (now the Uplands district of Swansea), for a £50 bet. Cries of `Hoax!' were raised when not once during the proceedings was Gale seen walking at night, preferring to remain inside a specially-erected booth to engage in his `apparently arduous task'. This booth intensely annoyed nearby residents, who were compelled to suffer the unsavoury rabble who congregated around it, and who were `a perfect disgrace to the whole town'. The police were eventually called to eject Gale and his supporters.29

Pedestrian events were by no means always harmonious and trouble-free therefore, and, indeed, for each honest, dedicated athlete there were several dubious, untrustworthy characters, whose less-than-upright activities tarnished the sport immeasurably. Trickery was rife, with fleet-footed amateurs entering races under false names, professionals impersonating unknown amateurs, and match-fixing galore, while riots amongst the crowd also sullied the sport's reputation. During an ultra-distance event in October 1815, the aforementioned Wilson duped the public by walking only in the daylight hours before being relieved at night by an athlete whom he closely resembled. This devious scheme was discovered later during a quarrel over the division of the profits, and the matter then taken to court for investigation.30 In May 1853, spectators were rankled when `The American Deer', following a series of marathon endeavours, failed to appear at the Traveller's Rest, Swansea, for his scheduled event of twenty miles in two hours. A crowd of several hundred gathered to view the feat, only to be disappointed by his non-appearance, without so much as an apology.31 Similar unsportsmanlike behaviour occurred during a novelty race on the Swansea Sands in 1848, when Welshman Jackson, `The Flying Tailor', carrying a friend on his back, achieved a dubious victory by pushing over his opponent Mr Knock `by a clever dodge'32 halfway through the event.

It was precisely this seamy side of pedestrianism, provoking hostile attacks from ministers of religion and drawing unenviable comparisons with the emerging amateur sports and their ethos of fair play, that increasingly discredited it and became a matter of grave concern for the authorities. Rowdyism and irresponsible crowd behaviour, stemming from a combination of gambling and drink, aggravated matters further, leading on numerous occasions to police prosecution. Meetings staged near public houses, which encouraged excessive alcohol consumption, did nothing to allay the sport's waning image, while warnings of the lure of the gin bottle generally went unheeded. Meanwhile, the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian following a race at Hirwaun in 1848, questioned the wisdom of gambling by `the sporting men of Aberdare' who, `in those days of commercial distress', should consider the many ways in which their money may have been `more wisely spent'.33 With too many organisers and performers setting financial gain above athletic integrity, an unhealthy preoccupation with money overshadowed all sense of sportsmanship and wholesome competition. Owing to the large sums of money involved, an easily manipulated handicap system, and the absence of one central governing body until the 1920s, pedestrianism almost courted foul play and unscrupulous behaviour.

The formation of the Amateur Athletic Club (AAC) in 1866 and the codification of its official rules eventually sealed the fate of professional pedestrianism, for while athletics and pedestrianism coexisted for a time, the latter was ultimately forced out of existence. In a concentrated attempt to dissociate upright and respectable modern athletics from the corrupted professional form, AAC regulations restricted participation to the upper- and middle-classes, and consequently the gentry, once so supportive of pedestrianism, deserted it in droves. Perhaps it was the initial exclusiveness of amateur athletics to the wealthy that hindered its development across Wales, where pedestrian events continued to be held until the end of the nineteenth century, some decades after they had ceased in England. Another contributing factor may have been that Wales remained `passionately wedded to the ancient ways',34 in spite of social changes in the wake of industrialisation that undoubtedly benefited sport. Whatever the case, the AAC's influence was slow to travel. Athletes, such as the renowned William Gale, were still active in the 1880s, and as the author Henry Fazakerley Wilkinson observed, in 1877:

In the principality of Wales athletic sports have taken but little root, the Carnarvon meeting - founded in 1868 - being the only one of importance in the north. Although professional pedestrianism flourishes in the great mining districts of the south, amateur athletic meetings are rare, and chiefly confined to a few watering places where English visitors congregate during the season, Tenby being perhaps the oldest and most important reunion.35

It was not until the oldest Welsh athletic club, Newport A.C. (founded 1875) acquired the Rodney Parade Grounds in 1877, that athletic meetings began to be held on a more regular basis.

Representatives from Newport A.C. were among those present at the formation of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) in 1880, a body superseding the AAC and responsible for opening up the sport to all levels of society without compromising its upright image. As Montague Shearman noted in his Athletics and Football of 1889:

The athletic movement which commenced with the `classes' and first drew its strength from the Universities and public schools, has finally, like most other movements and fashions, good or bad, spread downwards to the masses.36

By the 1890s, standardised track championship events, as well as national cross-country contests, were becoming ever more popular in Wales, especially in the south. Conversely, the fortunes of professional pedestrianism fell into sharp decline, as the AAA began prosecuting athletes who raced under false names, and took an increasingly firm stance on betting, culminating in its exclusion from the association's events in 1906. Apart from a brief walking mania in the shape of the Powderhall contests during the early 1900s, inspired by a walking marathon craze and the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, by the turn of the twentieth century professional pedestrianism was fast becoming a distant memory. Its unrestrained rowdiness was totally at odds both with the new order and the religious climate of the period exemplified by the religious revival of 1904-5, which led to the demise of traditional customs and the continued suppression of `sinful' popular recreations.

Despite its ignoble end, at its zenith professional pedestrianism undoubtedly played a significant role among south-Walian communities, desperate for a source of leisure and enjoyment in a period of increasingly controlled and regimented work schedules. It generated the type of close-knit environment endangered by the replacement of rural fairs and festivals with unsociable factory hours, and welcomed competitors from all walks of life. Foot-racing challenges offered a valuable recreational outlet away from the strains of labour, and in paving the way for organised amateur athletics, constituted one of the final reminders, in sport at least, of a boisterous and unbridled pre-industrial age.

References

Birley, Derek, Sport and the Making of Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983)

Brailsford, Dennis, British Sport: A Social History (Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1992)

Dodd, A.H., The Industrial Revolution in North Wales, 3rd edn. (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1971)

Harris, H.A., Sport in Britain: Its Origins and Development (London: Paul, 1975).

Holt, Richard, Sport and the British: A Modern History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)

James, E. Wyn, Baledi i'r Cyw Cloff, Canu Gwerin, 15 (1992), pp.3-29

Jamieson, David A., Powderhall and Pedestrianism: The History of a Famous Sports Enclosure, 1870-1943 (Edinburgh and London: Johaston, 1943).

Jenkins, Gareth, Pedestrian Monmouth, Severn and Wye Review, 1 (4) (1971), pp.91-94.

Jones, Tecwyn Vaughan, Yr Hen Redwyr, Y Faner (6 May 1983), p.18.

Jones, Tecwyn Vaughan, `Marathona' Cymreig, Y Faner (6 May 1983), p.18.

Jones, Tegwyn, Hen Faledi Ffair (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 1971)

Jones, Tegwyn, Rhagor o Redwyr, Canu Gwerin, 16 (1993), pp.38-42

Lovesey, Peter, The Kings of Distance: A Study of Five Great Runners (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1968).

Lovesey, Peter, The Official Centenary History of the Amateur Athletic Association (Enfield: Guinness, 1979).

Nicholson, Geoffrey, The Professionals (London: Deutsch, 1964)

Shearman, Montague, Athletics and Football, 3rd edn. (London: Longmans, 1889)

Thom, Walter, Pedestrianism; or, A Account of the Performances of Celebrated Pedestrians during the Last and Present Century (Aberdeen: A. Brown & F. Frost, 1813)

Thomas, Ben Bowen, Baledi Morgannwg (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1951)

Watman, Melvyn, History of British Athletics (London: Hale, 1968).

Wilkinson, Henry Fazakerley, Modern Athletics 3rd edn. (London.: The Field, 1877)

Newspapers

The Cambrian

Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian

Glamorgan, Monmouth and Brecon Gazette

The Monmouthshire Beacon

The Welshman

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Peter Lovesey for drawing my attention to several original sources.

Enclosed photograph of William Gale to be inserted alongside text on Gale on pages 8-9.

Photo Caption: William Gale

To be inserted at close of article: The photograph of William Gale is reproduced from Angle, Bernard John, My Sporting Memories (London: Robert Holden, 1925)

1 The Cambrian, 9 December 1815

2 Brailsford, 1992, p.45.

3 The Cambrian, 21 September 1804.

4 The Cambrian, 20 August 1825.

5 The Cambrian, 4 August 1810.

6 The Cambrian, 20 February 1946.

7 The Cambrian, 11 July 1851.

8 Glamorgan, Monmouth and Brecon Gazette, 3 February 1844.

9 Glamorgan, Monmouth and Brecon Gazette, 2 March 1844.

10 Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 15 February 1845.

11 James, 1992, p.15.

12 Jones, Tegwyn, 1993, p.30.

13 Ibid, p.223.

14 The Welshman, 28 February 1845.

15 Ibid.

16 The Cambrian, 24 August 1845.

17 The Cambrian, 26 April 1867.

18 The Monmouthshire Beacon, 7 March 1840.

19 The Cambrian, 30 March 1839.

20 The Cambrian, 16 March 1844.

21 The Cambrian, 16 April 1869.

22 The Cambrian, 4 August 1810.

23 The Monmouthshire Beacon, 23 March 1839.

24 The Cambrian, 20 December 1850.

25 The Cambrian, 26 November 1880.

26 Holt, 1989, pp.184-5.

27 The Cambrian, 26 November 1880.

28 The Cambrian, 7 January 1881.

29 The Cambrian, 21 December 1855.

30 The Cambrian, 21 October 1815.

31 The Cambrian, 27 May 1853.

32 The Cambrian, 6 October 1848.

33 Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 21 July 1848.

34 Dodd, 1971, p.3.

35 Wilkinson, 1877, p.16.

36 Shearman, 1889, pp.226-7.