THINK of sports big earners and boxers, footballers and tennis stars spring to mind — but probably not crown green bowlers.

Yet it was not that long ago that these sportsmen were among the top paid stars in the land — with many coming from Bolton and district.

The University of Bolton’s visiting researcher Dr Peter Swain has highlighted how, around 1900, bowlers such as Gerard Hart from Blackrod or Bolton’s Tom Taylor, known as “Owd Toss”, could regularly earn £50 a tournament — which was equivalent to an average labourer’s annual wage at the time.

As well as these winnings the players would also receive a share of the gate money spectators had paid to watch the game, they would bet on the outcome of their matches and sometimes even receive commission on the betting.

Dr Swain has also uncovered that crown green bowlers from Bolton’s Howcroft Inn in the 1830s thought they were the best in the country and each year would issue a challenge of “Bolton against all-England for a cool-hundred” — a sum equivalent to £75,000 in today’s money.

The lecturer said: “Despite the 1830s being turbulent political times in Bolton there seems to have been a developing commercialised sporting culture with Boltonians of the day claiming they had the best runner in the country between 100 yards to a quarter-mile in Benjamin Bradley Hart, the best long jumper in Thomas Lang, “The Mountain Stag” who lived in Belmont, and the best bowlers on two greens in the British Empire.

Dr Swain said: “As the century wore on the triangle between Bolton, Westhoughton and Chorley produced most of the outstanding professional crown green bowlers of the day culminating in the heyday of professional crown green bowling around 1900.

“A top bowler at that time would earn around £800 a year in prize money, which is worth about £300,000 today.”

And while crown green bowling might not command mega-bucks in Bolton in 2013, it is still a very popular sport in the borough.

There are still more than 230 crown green bowling teams in Bolton in leagues including Bolton and District Bowling League, Bolton Mills Bowling League, Bolton Conservative Bowling League, Bolton Parks Vets Bowling League, Horwich and District Bowling League, Turton Bowling League, Municipal Bowling League and Farnworth Parks Vets League.

Dr Swain’s findings are published in the academic journal Sport In History.