The Temperance Movement

            and the first Eastington parish magazine

The ECN has been with us for many years and is now a useful and much valued means of communication within the village. However, few readers will be aware that it is not the first such publication that Eastington has had.

From the 1880s, through to the early years of the 20th century, the Eastington Parish Magazine was produced and distributed throughout the parish. It appears to have been largely the brainchild of the local Temperance Association, as each issue carried, in a prominent position, what the

organisation had been doing in the previous month. It also included regular warnings about the dangers of the demon drink! However, there were also numerous interesting articles describing many day-to-day activities taking place in and around the village.

As readers will doubtless already know, the temperance movement advocated either total abstinence from alcohol, or at least, only minimal use.

 In 1835, the British Association for the Promotion of Temperance was created, and the idea was soon adopted by many working class movements of the period fighting for the right to vote. Some hoped that abstinence would give them an air of respectability and help further their cause.

At first, temperance usually involved a promise not to drink spirits, and members continued to consume wine and beer. However, a stronger stance was subsequently taken by the teetotal movement that campaigned against the consumption of all alcoholic drinks. Several attempts were made to ban alcohol completely although these never made it through parliament. Despite this, a number of religious organisations continued to lobby politicians for restrictions or bans on the sale of alcohol.

The outcry against the dangers of alcohol in Britain became loudest during the 1880s.The Quakers, the Salvation Army and the League of the Cross (a Catholic group calling for total abstinence), all sought to curb drinking in Britain, and in 1884 the National Temperance Federation was founded in association with the Liberal Party. However, the Conservative Party tended to support the interests of the drink trade and brewing industry.

In many places, the Temperance Association came to have a lot of influence. In Eastington, it was strongly promoted, particularly by some of the wealthier and more powerful residents. Amongst these were the Hoopers, the family that ran the village’s cloth mills from the 1830s through to the 1880s. Both Charles Hooper and his son Charles Henry Hooper played dominant roles in the parish.

Their cloth- making business was the main local employer and luckily for their employees, both adopted a fairly paternalistic attitude towards their workers, promoting various measures to look after their educational, physical and spiritual needs. However, they were particularly concerned about the effects of beer shops, often converted cottages dotted throughout the parish, that sold beer and spirits. In the 1830s Eastington had no less than 23 beer shops and two pubs - by the 1890s this had risen to nine. The Hoopers are probably best remembered for the temperance hall that formerly stood in Alkerton, and the drinking- fountain combined with a signpost set up in the centre of the village to mark Queen Victoria’s Jubilee of 1897. Local tradition suggests that this was to deflect custom from the King's Head!

Many years ago, the writer was loaned a bound set of the original Eastington Parish Magazine from a late resident in the village. Unfortunately, this was only for one evening! Nevertheless, copious notes were made from many individual magazine articles – many of these little snippets throw a fascinating light on how earlier generations lived and worked within the village. It’s hoped that some of these can be reproduced in future editions of the current parish magazine.

Stephen Mills

Published in ECN 131 Feb/Mar 2012

The First Magazines

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