March 1857 - Burrell's portable beetroot distillery

It’s very easy to look upon the Victorian era as one of strict moral codes or temperance and to describe as ‘Victorian’ ideas or attitudes deemed to be old fashioned by today’s standards.

We may find it strange, for example, to think that in the 1830s temperance societies began campaigning against the recreational consumption of alcohol, with some groups seeking total prohibition whilst others advocated abstention.

The Band of Hope actively campaigned against the consumption of alcohol by children and its work continues today as Hope UK, focussing primarily on curbing drug use among young people.

Seemingly ‘Victorian’ in today’s parlance, the temperance societies were reacting – sometimes piously - to drunkenness and anti-social behaviours exhibited in towns and cities where members of the urbanised working class were seen to be developing problems caused by alcohol. They weren’t alone. In Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain: Beyond the Spectre of the Drunkard Thora Hands states: “Victorians liked to drink, and they lived in a society geared towards alcohol consumption.”