Here are a couple of miscellaneous temperance fun facts for history buffs, ranging from the views of Thomas Cook to the origins of Vimto. Thomas Cook The founder of the well known British holiday company was a committed abstainer. On 5 July 1841, Cook arranged a railway excursion to take a group of Temperance campaigners from Leicester to Loughborough and this trip is widely acknowledged as an important step in the founding of the holiday industry in the U.K. He escorted arou

From Halls to Hospitals, the Temperance movement prompted the construction of a variety of buildings, a lot of which stand today. Besides the infamous Alliance House, there are a number of notable buildings the movement is responsible for! Read more and click through interactive galleries that demonstrate the work the movement is responsible for. In the early 19th Century there were very few alternatives to meeting in Inns or Public Houses. For many small villages and towns,

On this day in 1837 - Thomas Burt, acknowledged to be the first working class MP in Britain, was born in the North East of England. He began his working life as a boy of ten years old – at a colliery - his working day involved a four hour walk to and from work each day and a twelve hour shift underground. Thomas Burt was a lifelong abstainer coming from a Rechabite home and Temperance was central to his beliefs and life. In 1865 he was appointed the Secretary of the Northumb

On this day, 186 years ago John King was passing Joseph Livesesy's shop in Church Street, Preston - Joseph Livesey invited him in and after a discussion about the subject of moderation vs total absention from alcohol, Livesey asked King if he would sign a pledge of total abstinence, to which he agreed. Livesey drafted the Pledge and requested of King "Thee sign it first" which he did and then signed after him. On the following Saturday week, September 1st, at special meeti

The 25th May 2018 marked the 80th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of Alliance House. The building in Caxton Street, Westminster, a new home for the Temperance Movement was financed by subscription and was the brain child of the inspirational Robert Wilson Black. The foundation stone itself was laid by Mr Willam Bingham and the building was completed by November of 1938. #Temperance #Caxton

Peter Turner Winskill (1834-1912) In any history of the Temperance Movement, Peter Turner Winskill stands proud as a historian, advocate, poet and songwriter. It is through his historical writings that we have a cannon of Temperance biography. His work assists to illustrate the lives of wide cross section of renowned Temperance workers dating from the dawn of the movement to the end of the 19th Century. Winskill's committment to Temperance was informed by his own experience

The story of the 1851 Great Exhibition and its iconic venue, Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, is well known. What is perhaps not so well known is the influence Temperance had on the ‘Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations’. The idea of an international exhibition to show all nations the wonders of the newly industrialised Britain was championed by Henry Cole and Price Albert. They would both sit on a Royal Commission established to promote the event, which

2017 marks the 185th anniversary of the birth of the Total Abstinence movement or what in time came to be known as Teetotalism. In the early years of the 19th Century a rising tide of concern about the levels of alcohol consumption and associated problems led to the formation of a number of organisations which sought to advocate moderation in alcohol use, particularly abstaining from drinking strong spirits. These ‘Temperance” Societies spread rapidly throughout Ireland, Sco