policing drunkenness in cumbria, 1856-1901 the cumberland and westmorland constabulary dr guy...
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Policing Drunkenness in Cumbria, 1856-1901
The Cumberland and Westmorland Constabulary
Dr Guy WoolnoughThe police in Victorian England
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Kirkby Stephen
Pennine town in the county of Westmorland
Kirkby StephenPopulation c.1500
The Temperance Movement
Four Temperance Inns, one Temperance Hall,
four Bands of Hope, one Rechabite ‘tent’, and an
annual Temperance Demonstration
3
Shepherd, M.E., 2003. From Hellgill to Bridge End : aspects of economic and social change in the Upper Eden Valley 1840-95.
4Clarke, D.F., 1983. An Isolated Holy Community: Methodism in the Upper Eden Valley, Westmorland. Burgess, J., 1980. A history of Cumbrian Methodism.
Kirkby Stephen Primitive Methodist Chapel, rebuilt 1902
Cautley Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, built 1865
Methodism
1851 Religious census: Kirkby union attendance, 71%
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All cases brought before Kirkby Stephen Petty Sessions, 1874-1900
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Offences brought to court by Kirkby Stephen Police, 1874-1900
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Police Discretion
A drunk, summonsed after an incident at Grayrigg, in 1892From the station Occurrence Book
81858
18601862
18641866
18681870
18721874
18761878
18801882
18841886
18881890
18920
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Cumbria
England and Wales
Persons charged with drunkenness offences, 1858-1892
From Judicial Statistics
Expressed per 10000 of population
91858
18601862
18641866
18681870
18721874
18761878
18801882
18841886
18881890
18920
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Expressed per 10000 of population
Liverpool
Kirkby Stephen
101858
18601862
18641866
18681870
18721874
18761878
18801882
18841886
18881890
18920
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Kirkby Stephen 1900
Expressed per 10000 of population
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Kirkby StephenTemperance
Kirkby LonsdaleTourism
Drink offences 216 79
Vagrancy offences 36 82
Arrests and Summonses, Kirkby Stephen and Kirkby Lonsdale (1893-1900)
Same size population, same county, same police force, same agriculture.
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Kirkby Stephen
Kirkby Lonsdale
Non vagrants 158 69
Vagrants 58 10Vagrants charged as % of total charges
27% 13%
Arrests and Summonses for Drink offences Kirkby Stephen and Kirkby Lonsdale (1893-1900)
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Kirkby Stephen
Kirkby Lonsdale
Vagrants charged with drink offences
expressed as a percentage of all vagrant offenders
31% 5%
Arrests and Summonses, Kirkby Stephen and Kirkby Lonsdale (1893-1900)
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In both places, the police targeted vagrants.
In Kirkby Lonsdale, tourism was important, with rich and respectable visitors coming from across the UK. Begging was the problem that concerned people in the town, and this is what vagrants were arrested for.
In Kirkby Stephen, temperance was important, drunkenness was the problem that concerned people in the town, and this is what vagrants were arrested for.
The police exercised their discretion and responded to local pressures, cultural or economic.
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Billington, L., 1988. Revivalism and Popular Religion. In: E.M. Sigsworth, ed, In search of Victorian values: aspects of nineteenth-century thought and society. ManchesterCrockett, A., 2005. Rural-Urban Churchgoing in Victorian England. Rural History, 16(01), pp. 53. (Supply of chapels in rural areas was key to attnedance)
historians have ignored temperance as a dead end but Victorians obsessed with alcohol. Dingle, A.E., 1980. Campaign for prohibition in Victorian England : The United Kingdom Alliance 1872-1895.
Shiman, L.L., 1988. Crusade against drink in Victorian EnglandTemperance and Methodism organised the social life of many workers Teetotalers working class men could be aggressive, not concerned for the conventions of respectability.