Old Haslingfield in the News – Temperance in 1913
The Band of Hope was an organisation formed within the Methodist Church in Leeds in 1847 to promote temperance. It soon became a national movement, and indeed spread to New Zealand and the USA. It also spread to Haslingfield, which with its seven pubs in the early part of the twentieth century would have been regarded as a ripe recruitment area. The Band met regularly in the old Primitive Methodist Chapel which still stands just off the High Street, where it put on entertainments to attract the young to “sign the pledge”. One such entertainment took place on March 14th, 1913.
The Reverend H. Burn of Great Eversden presided, and after an opening song and prayer there were songs and recitations involving members of the Dowling, Callway, Newling and Cosford families. Miss Huddlestone was the accompanist. These meetings were reported as well-attended, though one wonders when looking at the size of the chapel quite how many could be squeezed in.