The History of Croquet: How Jaques of London Brought a Lawn Game to Britain

Most people associate Wimbledon with tennis. What they rarely know is that the All England Club began as a croquet club, and that it was croquet that first filled those famous lawns. Tennis arrived as the newcomer. Croquet was there first, and it was Jaques of London that helped put it there.

The story of croquet in Britain is one of the most surprising in the history of sport. It arrived from Ireland around 1851, was standardised and sold to the nation by Jaques of London, became the first competitive sport men and women played together as equals, travelled to the Olympics in 1900, and then retreated gracefully to the lawns of country houses and garden enthusiasts who understood what they had. It is still played the same way today.

If you have ever wondered where croquet came from, who wrote the rules, or why an entire Olympic sport quietly vanished for 124 years, this is the full story, rooted in the archives of Jaques of London, established in 1795 and the oldest games manufacturer in the world.

The Origins: Croquet Comes to Britain from Ireland

The exact origins of croquet are debated, but the scholarly consensus places its entry into England via Ireland around 1851 to 1852. The game had been popular in Irish country houses during the 1840s, played on the neat grass of estates where the new mechanical lawn mower, invented by Edwin Budding in 1830, had made smooth turf possible for the first time. Croquet England traces the game's Irish connections to this period, noting it spread to England through the social networks of the Anglo-Irish gentry.

Before that, similar mallet-and-hoop games existed across Europe. The French game of paille-maille had been played in London as early as the 1600s, giving its name to Pall Mall. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds illustrations of European garden games from the 17th century that show recognisable hoops-and-mallet play. But the structured, competitive game with standardised equipment and formal rules is distinctly Victorian and distinctly British, and it starts with a Jaques of London display case in 1851.

The timing matters. The mechanical lawn mower had democratised the lawn, making short grass affordable for the middle class rather than an aristocratic luxury maintained by teams of gardeners with scythes. A smooth lawn made croquet practical. And croquet, once practical, spread quickly.

The Origins: Croquet Comes to Britain from Ireland

Jaques of London and the First Rulebook

John Jaques II displayed croquet equipment at the Great Exhibition of 1851, held at Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. This was the exhibition that showcased the greatest achievements of British manufacturing to the world, and croquet was there among them. The display marked the moment croquet became a commercial product, not just an informal pastime. The Victoria and Albert Museum's archive of the Great Exhibition documents the wide range of recreational goods on display, reflecting the Victorian appetite for organised leisure.

In 1857, Jaques of London published the first English rulebook for croquet. This was a genuinely significant act. Without standardised rules, a game cannot spread. The rulebook gave croquet a shared language that allowed clubs, families, and neighbours to play on equal terms. It is the same function that codified rules served for association football, cricket, and lawn tennis at roughly the same period. The difference is that Jaques, a manufacturer, did it, not a governing body.

The Croquet Association, now known as Croquet England, was founded in 1897 to take over the governance of the sport. By then, Jaques had already spent four decades shaping how the game was played, what the equipment looked like, and who could buy it. The 1857 rulebook is considered the founding document of competitive croquet in England.

Jaques of London and the First Rulebook

The Victorian Social Phenomenon

Croquet succeeded in the Victorian era for a reason that had nothing to do with the game itself. It was the first competitive sport in which men and women could play together as equals, on the same lawn, under the same rules, with an equal chance of winning. That was genuinely radical in 1860s Britain.

Victorian sports were almost entirely segregated by gender. Cricket, football, athletics, and rowing were male domains. Women could watch, but not compete. Croquet changed that. Because the game required skill, strategy, and patience rather than physical strength, women were not at any structural disadvantage. The British Museum holds period illustrations showing women competing in croquet matches alongside men, a social scene that had no equivalent in any other sport of the era.

This made croquet a social phenomenon. Garden parties were built around it. Courting couples used croquet lawns as one of the few socially sanctioned spaces where they could interact, compete, and spend time together without chaperones hovering at close range. The game became embedded in a specific idea of English social life, one that persisted through the Edwardian era and into the 20th century.

The sociologist Norbert Elias, whose foundational work on the development of sport is held at the University of Leicester's Norbert Elias Archive, identified croquet as a key early example of how leisure sports functioned as social glue in Victorian Britain, providing structured settings for mixed-gender social interaction within the bounds of respectable middle-class life.

The Victorian Social Phenomenon

Croquet Comes Back: The Modern Revival

After its Victorian peak, croquet declined as a fashionable sport in the early 20th century. Lawn tennis, introduced to the All England Club in 1877, drew away the younger players and eventually dominated the Wimbledon lawns entirely. By 1882 the club's name had changed to the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, which is still its official name today, though the croquet half is rarely mentioned.

Croquet never disappeared, though. Croquet England now governs the sport across multiple competitive formats, including Association Croquet, Golf Croquet, and GC doubles, with clubs active across the country. The World Croquet Federation, founded in 1989, oversees international competition in over 30 countries. The sport's reputation as an exclusively elderly pastime is a misreading of modern competitive croquet, which demands significant tactical skill and physical precision.

Garden croquet has seen its own steady revival, particularly as families look for outdoor activities that bring different generations together. A garden croquet set from Jaques of London is played on the same basic principles as the sport John Jaques II displayed at Crystal Palace in 1851. The mallets, the hoops, the coloured balls: the equipment has evolved in quality and materials, but the game itself is unchanged.

Croquet Comes Back: The Modern Revival

Which Croquet Set Is Right for Your Garden?

Jaques of London makes croquet sets across a range of grades, from junior garden sets for younger children through to full competition-standard equipment approved for club and tournament play. All Jaques sets use FSC-certified timber for the mallets and are independently tested to UKCA and CE standards.

For most families, a garden-grade set is the right starting point. These include everything needed to play a proper game: mallets, coloured balls, hoops, and posts. They are built to last through regular use on a home lawn, and the rules included are the same ones Jaques published in 1857, updated for modern play.

Which Croquet Set Is Right for Your Garden?

Frequently Asked Questions About Croquet