The concerts did not return to the racecourse and attempts to hold them elsewhere failed.Local MP Joshua Walmsley, who supported workers rights and wider reform found his election the following year came down to the issue of Sunday observance.The local newspaper The Leicester Mercury reported: “For a fortnight, the town was divided against itself by an election contest approaching in bitterness and violence to an implacable civil war.” Placards on walls denounced Sir Joshua as an infidel and as his core supporters – the working class – did not yet have the vote, he lost his seat.It was not until the 1932 Sunday Entertainment Act that the British public got to visit museums, zoos, and picture galleries on Sundays.And they had to wait for 1972’s Sunday Theatre Act, to have the option to enjoy a stage show, and only in 1994 were all shops allowed to trade in all goods – albeit with restricted hours which remain with us still.
‘An implacable civil war’ – when Sunday fun split Leicester
