Dr Annemarie McAllistair will be researching the Temperance Movement

A Preston academic will be uncovering the history of the city’s famous Temperance Movement.

Dr Annemarie McAllister from the University of Central Lancashire plans to lift the lid on Temperance and its connections with the working classes.

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The city’s Temperance Movement, which was against alcohol and required members to sign a pledge of abstinence, was started by Joseph Livesey in 1832.

Dr McAllister has received a grant of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to make the research happen.

She said: “This massively popular movement in the nineteenth and twentieth century is in danger of being forgotten.

“Millions of local men, women and children joined societies, signed pledges and excluded alcohol from their lives, and there are people alive today who signed the pledge and went to events in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, for example.”

Working with the People’s History Museum in Manchester, Dr McAllister plans to hold an exhibition in the St George’s Shopping Centre in August about the movement.

“Not only our volunteers, but thousands of people coming to the exhibitions and events will also gain a deeper insight into this previously under represented aspect of our history,” she said.

“We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund to enable many people to develop new skills and to highlight this neglected aspect of the region’s history. It might even stimulate debate about attitudes to drink today.”

What do you think about the grant? Would you like to go to the exhibition? Let us know your views on Temperance in the comments below