Cock-fighting and the Cockpit

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There are many activities that are abhorrent to us in the 21st century but were fairly common in past centuries.

One such is cock-fighting, which allegedly has a history going back 6,000 years. However, in England it started to become popular as a "sport", pastime or entertainment in the late 17th century.

Little is yet known about this popular 17th and 18th century activity in Hungerford, but a document held at the Royal Berkshire Archives in Reading sheds a little light. It is the only known mention of a local cockpit in Hungerford. The document dates from the very start of the 18th century and relates to the "lately new built" property that we now know as 13 Bridge Street.

This property had been The King’s Head tavern for nearly 150 years from c.1557 until c.1705. It was then rebuilt and was sold in 1707.

The conveyance document of 1707 (BRO D/EBl T4) recorded that the owner, Joseph Wall of Marlborough, sold the property to Thomas Clempson, an apothecary, of Hungerford.

The property was described as "all the messuage ... situate in the High Street together with the stables and other outhouses, yard, garden ground thereof unto belonging”. It adds that “a great part of which messuage was lately new built” and confirms that "the old messuage there whilst it stood was called the King's Head".

The conveyance also described "those gardens & meadow grounds & the grounds now used as a cock pit & whereon a summer house was lately built ....".

In 1787 a Royal Proclamation was sent to every magistrate, in an attempt to stop the "sport", mentioning “swarms of petty pothouses ... haunts of idleness, seminaries of crime…”. Magistrates were urged to rule against cock-fighting on licensed premises, tippling during divine services, harbouring of vagrants and breaking of gaming laws. Constables were “incited to be more diligent in their supervision of alehouses” and “Magistrates, churchwardens etc were asked to take greater care when signing certificates of good conduct”.

It took nearly another fifty years before cock-fighting along with bear-baiting, bull-baiting and dog fighting were finally banned in England and Wales by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835.