When the Romans invaded Britain, Julius Caesar wrote in his commentaries that the Britons kept fowls for pleasure and diversion but not for table purposes. Many well-known authorities have considered that cock fighting was the diversion. In 1849 an Act of Parliament was passed making cock fighting illegal in this country, and, with poultry exhibitions then taking root, many breeders began to exhibit Game Fowls.

The Old English Game Club split in about 1930 as there was already a divergence of birds being shown with larger breasted, horizontally backed, exhibition-type birds tending to win, and breeders of these formed the Carlisle Club, developing only some of the original colours. Breeders of the original type, wherein the back is at 45° to the ground, maintained the well-balanced, close-heeled, athletic fighting fowl, and formed the Oxford Club, retaining over 30 colours. The judge of Oxfords does so with the bird facing away from him to assess the correct balance. It is usually agreed that a good Game Fowl cannot be a bad colour.