Front Street, Victoria Wine Shop, cockpit

HER Number:
6921

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
Front Street, Victoria Wine Shop, cockpit

Place:
Tynemouth

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Recreational

Site Type: Broad:
Baiting Place

Site Type: Specific:
Cockpit

General Period:
POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period:
Hanoverian 1714 to 1837

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
Possible cock-fighting pit. There is a pit sunk into the cellar floor beneath what was for many years Boots the Chemist and is now the Victoria Wine shop in Front Street, Tynemouth. It measures 3.5m in diameter, 1.2m deep with access by five narrow steps on the south perimeter. It was reported in the Shields Weekly News on 7 August 1970. Tradition says there was another pit at the Salutation Inn in Front Street, but nothing now survives. Cock-fighting was a popular pastime throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was often referred to as the "Royal Sport". The pursuit had a number of notable folloers including the Duke of Cleveland and Earl of Northumberland. Contests were advertised as "Gentlemen's Subscription Mains" but the "sport" was actually popular with all classes. Established rural cock-pits were often no more than an uncovered earthwork, they were generally located in or near to villages. This feature is about 400m away from Grindon village. The pis consisted of a central fighting platform, 2.5m or more in diameter, surrounded by a shallow ditch and external bank. During the contest low boards were put on the platform to contain the birds. Three classes of birds were normally used - stags which were under one year old, cocks which were older, and blinkards or one-eyed veterans. Birds who refused to fight were known as "fugies" or "hamies". Cock-fighting became a well publicised and financially well-backed "sport". As well as the local venues, cock-fighting also took place at local race meetings, usually in the morning, followed by the horse racing in the afternoon. Events were advertised in the local press, such as the Newcastle Courant. Prizes were normally in the region of 10-20 Guineas, however there were occasions when they could be as much as 500 Guineas. Sometimes the prizes for cock-fighting were of greater value than the awards for the local horse races. By the early nineteenth century opposition against the barbarity of cock-fighting was increasing, due to improved education and a religious revival which exerted moral pressures on society. Many of the local gentry turned to other pastimes, such as fox hunting, which at the time was more politically and socially acceptable.

Easting:
436900

Northing:
569300

Grid Reference:
NZ436900569300

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
George Jobey, 1992, Cock-fighting in Northumberland and Durham during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 5, Vol XX, pp 1-21; P. Egan, 1832, Newcastle may challenge the world for cocking in Book of Sports; Pearson, Lynn, 2010, Played in Tyne and Wear - Charting the heritage of people at play, p 128-131