National School Grounds Week – June 13-17, 2025

History of National School Grounds Week

Currently, sport is vital to children’s development and education, which was not always so. In the early nineteenth century, sports and games were of no interest to the headmasters of public schools.

In 1845, Steeplechase was first played in Eton and had reached Cheltenham and Harrow by 1853. It reached Rugby and Winchester in 1856 and 1857, respectively. Soon, football also started to be played. The first documented soccer match at Winchester was in 1825, which comprised 25 players on each side, with the goal post being a simple line cut in the earth 27 yards away. It was a very rough game as it recorded broken bones at Winchester. Soccer largely remained an internal game at Winchester till the middle of the nineteenth century. With the standardization of rules, the games between schools became frequent. Representatives from the schools met at Cambridge University in 1848 to standardize the games. The representatives frequently met to share their version of football for several years, playing one half with one set of rules and then swapping it in the second half. Cambridge rules were later noted and adopted by Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, and Winchester school teams.

As the century progressed, the interest in sports started growing. The Clarendon Commission of 1864 commended the sporting activities; according to Thomas Arnold, Head of Rugby School (1828 — 1924), sports helped develop discipline and morals among gentlemen. By the mid-nineteenth century, sports had steadily gained popularity such that schools started hiring sports masters. Essential components of school sports were cricket, rowing, tennis, and athletics, which encouraged camaraderie and cooperation. Boys who were not just good at the game but also at embodying the noble spirit of the game were considered amateur gentlemen.