Pre 1900
Before radio, cinema and television, before smart phones and social media, what did folks in Downley do for fun? A search through the newspapers up to 1880 reveals a much more sociable life than one might have imagined, and some remarkable examples of continuity.
Most Downley men’s favourite pastime was probably going to one of the four pubs. Drinking kicked off the Victorian ‘Downley Day’ equivalent, which was held on Whit Monday (a medieval holiday replaced by the current Spring Bank holiday in the 1970s). It was reported on first in 1857 but was clearly long standing since it was ‘in the usual customs of olden times’. The day involved a heavy session of drinking, singing and playing skittles in the old Bricklayer’s Arms, which must therefore have had a skittle alley, followed by twelve bouts of bare-knuckle fighting on the Common, and consequently ‘black eyes and bloody noses’. Downley’s Wesleyans, meanwhile, celebrated the holiday by singing hymns and drinking tea.
Cricket was the other local passion. The Downley cricket team was first mentioned in August 1846, playing a game on the Common against a team from West Wycombe. Unfortunately, ‘the Downley lads were beaten, very much to their astonishment’. Four weeks later, the return match was held on Church Hill, ‘when the Downley lads, much to the surprise of their opponents, were the victors’. These matches seem to have been a regular thing, and soon the net of opponents spread more widely, to include Amersham cricket team in 1857 (we won), Cholesbury in 1864 (we lost), Peterley Manor in 1874 (we lost), and Prestwood in 1876 (we won). By 1866, there was also a junior cricket team, the Downley Juniors: it lost to the Wycombe Marsh Juniors that year; lost to Great Missenden in 1876; and won against West Wycombe in 1879. More unusually, in 1874 a cricket team from Mr Collins’ Downley chair factory played against eleven members of Messrs. Hutchinson and Son’s chair factory, opening a Musical Festival in the grounds of Wycombe Abbey. In other words, there was clearly more than one cricket team up here.
Oddly enough, not least because two of the founding players of the Wycombe Wanderers (Joe Grace & Bill Hathaway) were born in Downley, the newspapers make no mention at all of football before 1880.
Besides pubbing and cricket, Downley folk gardened. The presence of a garden was always mentioned when a cottage was sold or rented out. These gardens might be ‘ornamental’ out front, but they usually ‘productive’ out back. Obviously, all fruit and veg was for the table, so one might argue this was not done for fun, except for the fact that there does seem to have been a certain amount of friendly competitiveness, which was encouraged by two local shows. In July 1865, Lord Carrington opened up the grounds of Wycombe Abbey for a grand Horticultural Show with entries from all the great houses. Fortunately, there was a humbler ‘Cottagers’ section where Mr Barlow of Downley won first prize for his jar of honey. Meanwhile from 1871, Lady Dashwood also ran an annual horticultural show specifically ‘for the encouragement of cottage gardening’ in the parish. She used Lord Carrington’s gardener as judge. Every possible veg had its own category, and then there were categories for the best-stocked cottage garden, the best-stocked allotment and the best wildflower nosegay. And then there were categories to celebrate women’s work – the best lace,needlework and knitting. It was all clearly a grand day out, with a band, cricket games, running and three-legged races and tea thrown in.
Then there were church-related social events. For example, Sunnybank Methodists held an annual fund-raising tea party – that of July 1860 was attended by 300 people and raised £8.
From the 1870s, the children of the Anglican Sunday School had an annual summer holiday treat: tea and games with the vicar at West Wycombe. In 1874, this was reported in some detail.
‘The Downley children met those of West Wycombe at the school on the Church Hill, and forming in procession, to the number of 120, with their banners, and headed by the West Wycombe brass band, proceeded round the hill and through the village to the vicarage grounds, where they soon dispersed: the boys to cricket, and the girls to swinging, base ball, and other amusements. At three o’clock they sat down to tea, consisting of currant and seed cake, bread and butter, &c. Tea over they again proceeded to amuse themselves. At four o’clock the mothers of the children and the teachers partook of tea. During the evening races were run by both boys and girls for money prizes, the gift of Lady Dashwood, also for toys, neck-ties, &c. Sweets were also distributed amongst them and scrambled for. The Vicar and Mr B. Young, with Miss Young, of Mallard’s Court, and the curate, the Rev. A. K. Noon, were most indefatigable in their exertions to amuse the children.’
In 1876, 190 children attended the treat, and the reporter was a little more detailed about the games they enjoyed: cricket (of course), trap bat, flat races, hurdle races, blind race, three-legged race, spoon race, and a tug of war. There was also a Christmas treat for the children – though given the weather, they stayed put in Downley. In 1878, after an excellent tea provided by the vicar, they were entertained by ‘a splendid magic lantern’.
In 1877, the same very proactive vicar set up the ‘Guild of St Lawrence’, an Anglican association to which some 40 people in the parish belonged, which ran Bible reading classes in Downley, and tea parties. The other social item run by St James Church was a choir, which operated out of the tin church on Narrow Lane, with 20 members in 1876 when it was set up, conducted by Mr Dons of High Wycombe. Music making may well have been a popular pastime. The list of the contents sold at auction in 1853 of Plomer Hill Farm included two pianos. For those willing to walk to West Wycombe, there was a brass band, and a parish philharmonic orchestra was set up in 1876, with practices on Monday evenings in the church loft.
In January 1865, about forty Downley men set up a Literary Institute – intending to host lectures and loan out books – which was funded by a monthly subscription of 4d. The first lecture was given the following month by the vicar of West Wycombe on ‘The History of England before the Conquest’. Actually, that was the one and only lecture that was ever reported on. However, there was a subsequent development: in 1876, a ‘night school ‘ was opened for ‘men and lads’ for ‘their improvement’ in Downley, running on Monday and Thursday evenings at 7:30 in the Sunday school room, under the auspices of the vicar and curate. How many attended is not reported on.
The same school room was extended to be a Reading Room ‘for the accommodation of the young men of Downley’. It was effectively a library, suggesting reading as another pastime. Reading probably was popular among the rich: the sale of the contents of Plomer Hill Farm in 1853 included a glazed bookcase. Of course, the Downley Reading Room was probably yet another effort to keep lads out of the pubs, as the press report suggests: ‘the opening of the addition made to the Church Sunday Schoolroom at Downley’ in December 1877, ‘was inaugurated by an entertainment, consisting of readings and singing. … It is hoped that the efforts made to provide for the moral and mental improvement and comfort of the men of Downley will be appreciated by them.’
Two months later, in February 1878, the vicar effectively declared war on Downley’s pubs, by setting up a Temperance Society. He tried to persuade a packed hall to renounce alcohol with all its evils – crime, insanity, poverty, misery, neglect, and so forth. It is difficult to say whether he succeeded, since 1899 no further meetings of the Downley Temperance Society have been reported on, while the pubs stayed open.
