Open air plays were often found in towns and offered cheap entertainmment to the people. However where the people crowded together to watch the play you would also find thieves and "cut-purses's" who would try and steal your money. 

 

In the later part of the Tudor age people went to watch plays in newly built, round theatres in the towns. The well-off sat in covered seats on each side, while poorer people stood up in an open area in front of the stage called the pit. They laughed at the actors' jokes, or booed and jeered if they did not like the play. Only men could be actors so teenage boys played all the female parts dressed in women's clothes, wigs and make-up.

 

It was important to the Tudor government that English people spent most of their time working. A law was passed in 1512 that banned ordinary people from a whole range of games including tennis, dice, cards, bowls and skittles.

 

In the early 1500s football became a popular sport in England. It was a very different game from the one played today. The two sets of goal posts were placed about a mile apart. There was no limit to the numbers that took part and players could kick, throw or pick up the ball in an attempt to put it between the opponent's goalposts. However In 1540 people in England were banned from playing football after Henry VIII himself banned the game, on the grounds that it incited riots.