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Mobilising the Modern Industrial Landscape for Sports and Leisure in the Early Twentieth Century

This article was the developed outcome of a paper of the same title presented at the Design History Society’s conference on the ‘Material Culture of Sport’ at the University of Brighton in September 2012. The article of 8000 words was a substantially developed version of the conference paper and selected following peer review by the editor of The International Journal of the History of Sport, which is acknowledged as a leading journal in the field of the history of sport in its political, cultural, social and economic contexts. Academics and students who read the journal include those in the disciplines of history, anthropology and sociology. The reviewers recommended publication of the article due to the originality of the subject matter, written from a design perspective in an under-explored area of sports history.

The article examines the park designs of two companies that became role models for the development of corporate recreation and industrial sports in Britain and the USA until well into the 20th century - Cadbury Brothers at Bournville, UK and the National Cash Register Company, Dayton, Ohio, USA. A comparative analysis of these parks reveals significant new insights into the ways in which industrial sports policies in Britain and the USA made a distinctive and significant contribution to the industrial landscape as well as to the sporting ‘revolution’ of the period.