RefNoLD2418
TitleSheffield Temperance Association
AdminHistoryHigh levels of alcohol consumption and drunkenness were seen by some as a danger to society's wellbeing leading to poverty, child neglect, immorality and economic decline. Temperance societies began to be formed in the 1830s to campaign against alcohol.

From Aug 1831 there were letters etc. written to the Sheffield Independent calling for a temperance society in Sheffield.

A Sheffield Temperance Association was established in the mid-1830s (the Sheffield Independent reported on its annual meetings), although the later printed Annual Reports for the Sheffield Temperance Association state: 'founded in 1854' (and some typescript reports suggest 1853).

Several notable Sheffield men and women were deeply committed to temperance, for example William and Henry Ibbotson who pioneered works temperance meetings, the Clegg family who were influential in the British Temperance League and H. J. Wilson, a local politician who spoke in favour of temperance. One of Sheffield's first members of parliament, James Silk Buckingham elected in 1832, was an active temperance reformer, and instigator of the Select Committee on Drunkenness of 1834.

The British Temperance League's offices, originally in Preston in Lancashire later moved to Sheffield, first to Furnival Street and then to Union Street and later still (1940) to Livesey-Clegg House (also in Union Street).

Sheffield had a Temperance Hall on Townhead Street. It was destroyed by enemy action during World War Two.

The British National Temperance League Sheffield is presently based at Westbrook Court, Sharrow Vale Road.
DescriptionMinute books, 1856 - 1916 (LD2418/1)
Subscription book, 1899 - 1919 (LD2418/2)
Account book, 1920 - 1946 (LD2418/3)
Copy letter book [press copies], 1921 - 1927 (LD2418/4)
Rules of the Sheffield Temperance Association (LD2418/5)
Annual reports, 1899 - 1941 (with gaps) (LD2418/6)
Letter from Chas. Slack to Sir John Charles Clegg, 1931 (LD2418/7)
Correspondence, polling cards and petitions re. liquor licenses on new Corporation housing estates, 1936 (LD2418/8)
Correspondence from the Bridgehouses Christian Temperance Association to the Sheffield Temperance Association, 1926 - 1929 (LD2418/9)
Copy correspondence, handbills and memos, 1932 - 1933 (LD2418/10)
Receipts for subscription funds, 1949 - 1966 (LD2418/11)
Photographs, [c.1880s] (LD2418/12)
Miscellaneous printed items, 1903 - 1981 (LD2418/13)
Annual statements of the Bridgehouses Christian Temperance Association, Swinton Street, Sheffield, 1922 - 1928 (LD2418/14)
Date1863 - 1981
Extent60 items
AccessStatusOpen
LevelCollection
RelatedMaterialSheffield City Archives and Local Studies Library:

Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library, Sources for the Study of Sheffield and the Temperance Movement, 2012 (online).
CustodialHistoryDeposited by Roy Bullen, on behalf of the British National Temperance League. Records of the British National Temperance League sent to Lancashire Polytechnic, Preston.
AcquisitionSourceThese items were deposited by the BNTL in 1987 and 1999.
ArchNoteTypescript lists typed up by Joanne Gawthorpe; catalogue prepared by Cheryl Bailey, Sep 2015.
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