Some bowls historians believe that the game was developed by the Egyptians and dates back to 5,000 BCE. One of their pastimes was to play skittles with round stones - though that sounds rather more like Ten Pin Bowling! But archaeologists have also uncovered biased stone bowls from around that same time so our ancestors perhaps enjoyed the game of bowling more than seven thousand years ago.
Sculptured vases and ancient plaques show a game that looks more like lawn bowls being played some four thousand years ago. When Caesar ruled Rome, there was a game known as Bocce that his conquering Roman Legions may well have carried to Europe and the British Isles. Certainly by the thirteenth century bowling had spread to France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, and England.
The oldest lawn bowls site still played on is in Southampton, where records show that the green has been in operation since 1299. There are other claims of greens being in use before that time, but these are unsubstantiated by reliable documentation. During the reign of Richard II bowls were referred to as ‘gettre de pere’ or ‘jetter de pierre’ to describe the throwing of a stone - presumably the roundest possible if it was to roll.
From the early 15th century bowls were made of any hard wood. Later lignum vitae, a very dense wood, became the material of choice after its discovery in the 16th century by Santo Domingo.
Having started off as spheres (or shaped as near spherical as could be crafted), at some point several hundred years ago lawn bowls acquired their off-centre bias that gives them a curved trajectory. The traditional, probably apocryphal, explanation of the inclusion of bias in a bowl is that it was introduced inadvertently in 1522 by Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk. At a high society bowls match in Goole, Yorkshire, his bowl split in two after striking other bowls. Apparently he was so keen to continue playing that he sawed the finial or knob off of a stairway banister post as a replacement. The flat side of the knob caused it to roll with a bias and he experimented by curving his bowl around others. The word spread and biased bowls gradually came into use.
Probably the most famous lawn bowls story concerns Sir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada. Drake was bowling at Plymouth on 19 July 1588 when he was notified that the Spanish Armada had been sighted. He reputedly replied "There is plenty of time to win the game and thrash the Spaniards too." He then proceeded to do just that, finishing his match and then leading the British Navy to victory over the Armada. Whether this event actually took place and, perhaps more importantly, whether Drake won his bowls match, are matters of some conjecture.
Lawn bowling, or bowls has much literary and historical claim to of being the ‘Sport of Kings’ before horse racing claimed that title. From the time of Edward III, the game was restricted to “Noblemen and others having manors or lands” by royal decree. However, despite this restriction, no serious effort was made to enforce the ban. As a seasonal act of goodwill King Henry III, who installed bowling greens at Whitehall, permitted the common people to play on Christmas Day. Almost every English monarch was a bowler and the royal estates were equipped with fine bowling greens including one that has been a permanent fixture at Windsor Castle.
Both King James I and his son King Charles I were ardent bowlers and reputed to have enjoyed playing for high stakes. King James I issued a publication called ‘The Book of Sports’ in which, although he condemned football and golf, he encouraged the playing of bowls. King Charles, according to bowling tradition, lost over £5,000 in one encounter with a Barking Hill merchant named Richard Shute. Not only men bowled: Anne Boleyn was a bowler, as were many noblewomen, including Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, was president of the Royal Household Bowling club of Windsor Castle. His brother, King George VI, was an enthusiastic bowler and patron of the English Bowling Association.
At times bowls was so popular in England and France that it was prohibited by law for reasons of national security because the essential skill of archery was being neglected. King Charles IV of France prohibited the game for 'the common people' in 1319, and King Edward III issued a similar edict in England in 1361.
Whilst Henry VIII was a lawn bowler, he banned the game for those who were not wealthy or well-to-do because "Bowyes, Fletchers, Stringers and Arrowhead makers" were spending more time at recreational events such as bowls instead of practicing their trade. Henry required anybody who wished to keep a green to pay a fee of 100 pounds and even then the green could only be used for private games and he forbade anyone to "play at any bowle or bowles in open space out of his own garden or orchard".
It seems that bowling was quite a rough and ready sport with historical mention of such foul play as nudging or tripping a person as they were about to bowl, kicking or moving bowls and pretty much anything that might give an advantage. Bowling was also frequently a subject for betting and, where rules of the game existed, they varied according to local practice.
Eventually a Glaswegian by the name of William Wallace Mitchell drew up his 'manual of bowls playing' in 1864, and these have become the basis of all subsequent laws wherever lawn bowling is played. The move to uniformity had begun in 1848 at a meeting in Glasgow where some two hundred players from various clubs came together to discuss their many and varied rules for playing the game. In 1892, the Scottish Bowling Association was formed and in 1893, it drew up rules based on Mitchell's Code along with a Code of Ethics. In 1903, the English Bowling Association was formed with its first President being Dr. W. G. Grace, better remembered for his fame as a cricketer.
The sport eventually made it's way to the New World as English and Scottish colonists took the game with them to America. There was a bowling green in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1632 and many states have towns named Bowling Green through early settlers’ abiding enthusiasm for the sport. Even George Washington laid out a green at Mount Vernon in 1732. Interest lapsed for years until a wave of Scottish immigration was thought to be the cause of a revival during the latter 19th century with an American Lawn Bowls Association (now USLBA) being established in 1915.
Sculptured vases and ancient plaques show a game that looks more like lawn bowls being played some four thousand years ago. When Caesar ruled Rome, there was a game known as Bocce that his conquering Roman Legions may well have carried to Europe and the British Isles. Certainly by the thirteenth century bowling had spread to France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, and England.
The oldest lawn bowls site still played on is in Southampton, where records show that the green has been in operation since 1299. There are other claims of greens being in use before that time, but these are unsubstantiated by reliable documentation. During the reign of Richard II bowls were referred to as ‘gettre de pere’ or ‘jetter de pierre’ to describe the throwing of a stone - presumably the roundest possible if it was to roll.
From the early 15th century bowls were made of any hard wood. Later lignum vitae, a very dense wood, became the material of choice after its discovery in the 16th century by Santo Domingo.
Having started off as spheres (or shaped as near spherical as could be crafted), at some point several hundred years ago lawn bowls acquired their off-centre bias that gives them a curved trajectory. The traditional, probably apocryphal, explanation of the inclusion of bias in a bowl is that it was introduced inadvertently in 1522 by Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk. At a high society bowls match in Goole, Yorkshire, his bowl split in two after striking other bowls. Apparently he was so keen to continue playing that he sawed the finial or knob off of a stairway banister post as a replacement. The flat side of the knob caused it to roll with a bias and he experimented by curving his bowl around others. The word spread and biased bowls gradually came into use.
Probably the most famous lawn bowls story concerns Sir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada. Drake was bowling at Plymouth on 19 July 1588 when he was notified that the Spanish Armada had been sighted. He reputedly replied "There is plenty of time to win the game and thrash the Spaniards too." He then proceeded to do just that, finishing his match and then leading the British Navy to victory over the Armada. Whether this event actually took place and, perhaps more importantly, whether Drake won his bowls match, are matters of some conjecture.
Lawn bowling, or bowls has much literary and historical claim to of being the ‘Sport of Kings’ before horse racing claimed that title. From the time of Edward III, the game was restricted to “Noblemen and others having manors or lands” by royal decree. However, despite this restriction, no serious effort was made to enforce the ban. As a seasonal act of goodwill King Henry III, who installed bowling greens at Whitehall, permitted the common people to play on Christmas Day. Almost every English monarch was a bowler and the royal estates were equipped with fine bowling greens including one that has been a permanent fixture at Windsor Castle.
Both King James I and his son King Charles I were ardent bowlers and reputed to have enjoyed playing for high stakes. King James I issued a publication called ‘The Book of Sports’ in which, although he condemned football and golf, he encouraged the playing of bowls. King Charles, according to bowling tradition, lost over £5,000 in one encounter with a Barking Hill merchant named Richard Shute. Not only men bowled: Anne Boleyn was a bowler, as were many noblewomen, including Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, was president of the Royal Household Bowling club of Windsor Castle. His brother, King George VI, was an enthusiastic bowler and patron of the English Bowling Association.
At times bowls was so popular in England and France that it was prohibited by law for reasons of national security because the essential skill of archery was being neglected. King Charles IV of France prohibited the game for 'the common people' in 1319, and King Edward III issued a similar edict in England in 1361.
Whilst Henry VIII was a lawn bowler, he banned the game for those who were not wealthy or well-to-do because "Bowyes, Fletchers, Stringers and Arrowhead makers" were spending more time at recreational events such as bowls instead of practicing their trade. Henry required anybody who wished to keep a green to pay a fee of 100 pounds and even then the green could only be used for private games and he forbade anyone to "play at any bowle or bowles in open space out of his own garden or orchard".
It seems that bowling was quite a rough and ready sport with historical mention of such foul play as nudging or tripping a person as they were about to bowl, kicking or moving bowls and pretty much anything that might give an advantage. Bowling was also frequently a subject for betting and, where rules of the game existed, they varied according to local practice.
Eventually a Glaswegian by the name of William Wallace Mitchell drew up his 'manual of bowls playing' in 1864, and these have become the basis of all subsequent laws wherever lawn bowling is played. The move to uniformity had begun in 1848 at a meeting in Glasgow where some two hundred players from various clubs came together to discuss their many and varied rules for playing the game. In 1892, the Scottish Bowling Association was formed and in 1893, it drew up rules based on Mitchell's Code along with a Code of Ethics. In 1903, the English Bowling Association was formed with its first President being Dr. W. G. Grace, better remembered for his fame as a cricketer.
The sport eventually made it's way to the New World as English and Scottish colonists took the game with them to America. There was a bowling green in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1632 and many states have towns named Bowling Green through early settlers’ abiding enthusiasm for the sport. Even George Washington laid out a green at Mount Vernon in 1732. Interest lapsed for years until a wave of Scottish immigration was thought to be the cause of a revival during the latter 19th century with an American Lawn Bowls Association (now USLBA) being established in 1915.
