Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Perhaps the readers of this column would notice that at od one of the meetings in celebration of the Temperance Jubilee in Leeds attention was drawn to the fact that it was in Leeds where the Band of Hope movement had its origin and received its name, and where, also, the first Band of Hope melodies were composed. Between 30 and 40 years ago, just about the time the first Band of Hope was organised in the town, the Leeds Mercury contained a specimen of typography in the shape of a tree, drawing attention to the evils of intemperance. Mr. T. Harper, of Cawood, Selby, who says he has been a reader of the Mercury for half a century, asks for the reproduction of of the tree, and it is given below:-

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Comment

It doesn’t work for me at the moment – line ten is one character shorter than line nine. What were they smoking?

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Alcohol (drug) (62) W/G ·
• Band of Hope (1) W/G ·
• Leeds Mercury (18), leading Whig newspaper founded by John Hirst in 1718, bought by Nonconformist-Liberal Edward Baines in 1801 and used to advocate some types of social and political reform, remained in the family for two more generations W/G ·
• 📌Leeds (248) W/G ·
• Newspaper (28) W/G ·
• Teetotalism (6) W/G ·
• Temperance movement in the United Kingdom (1) W/G ·
• Temperance movement (10) W/G ·
• Tree (3) W/G ·
• Typography (2) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

It doesn’t work for me at the moment – line ten is one character shorter than line nine. What were they smoking?

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Similar

29 September 1830: Tory Radical Richard Oastler: “free” white workers in the Bradford mills are worse off than their enslaved black counterparts in the colonies

25 August 1840: Debating the teetotal vegetarian Frederic Lees at Rotherham, the Wesleyan James Bromley calls the pledge unchristian, and “alcohol-free” wine undrinkable

1 May 1878: The Mercury quotes Clifford Allbutt (Leeds Infirmary) on the commendable beastliness of northerners

11 March 1879: Calling for magistrates to lose their jurisdiction over pub licences, the teetotaller Wilfrid Lawson suggests that Tory Radical William St James Wheelhouse serves the Yorkshire Brewers’ Association

20 September 1819: Flags and fasces at a procession from Briggate to Hunslet Moor to protest the Peterloo Massacre

25 September 1880: Thomas Harper reveals to the Leeds Mercury’s young readers a mnemonic song of monarchs (except Oliver) used in the village school at Weldrake (York) in the 1770s

30 April 1872: MPs discuss drink, proverbial curse of the working class, with James Wetherell, Leeds’s chief constable

13 October 1855: The Mercury publishes a letter from a chemist claiming that Leeds’s bakers adulterate their bread with a poisonous whitener

19 September 1835: The Leeds Mercury attacks property valuations under the recent Municipal Corporations Act, which facilitate the political careers of men from the centre of town

27 June 1835: On the eve of municipal reform, the Leeds Mercury maps the self-electing clan that runs the Leeds corporation

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

What of checks and balances? An amusing detail in the commissioners’ report on Leeds (via Frédéric Moret (Moret 2015)):

The close constitution of the corporation is obvious; all vacancies in each branch of it being filled by the Select Body, gives to that body absolute and uncontrolled self-election.

Family influence is predominant. Fathers and sons and sons-in-law, brothers and brothers-in-law, succeed to the offices of the corporation, like matters of family settlement.

The great respectability of the present members of the corporation and their impartial conduct as justices, were universally acknowledged; but the restricted system and want of a more popular method of election were loudly complained of; and it was said that it would be satisfactory to a great majority of the town, that there should be such more open course, as the Legislature in its wisdom, should think best.

The ill effects of the present exclusive system are rendered strikingly apparent from one circumstance in this borough. In cases where the election is popular, as in the choice of Commissioners under the Local Acts, the persons selected are all of one political party, professing the opposite opinions to those entertained by the majority of the corporation; which is accounted for by the necessity of balancing the influence of the corporation, at the same time that it is said to show the inclination of the majority of the town. This choice of commissioners exclusively from one party is admitted to be undesirable, but is justified as being resorted to in self-defence.

(Dwarris 1835)

The mayor didn’t get paid out of the corporation’s annual income of £220 (£23K in July 2024; Liverpool’s income was £90K – £9,600K in 2024 (Moret 2015)), so there may not be any good corruption stories out there.

The main conclusions of the first report (more):

• The corporations were exclusive bodies with no community of interest with the town after which they were named.
• The electorate of some corporations was kept as small as possible.
• Some corporations merely existed as “political engines” for maintaining the ascendancy of a particular party.
• Members of corporations usually served for life and the corporate body was a self-perpetuating entity. Roman Catholics and Dissenters, although no longer disabled from being members, were systematically excluded.
• Vacancies rarely occurred and were not filled by well-qualified persons.
• Some close corporations operated in almost complete secrecy, sometimes secured by oath. Local residents could not obtain information on the operation of the corporation without initiating expensive legal actions.
• The duties of the mayor were, in some places, completely neglected.
• Magistrates were appointed by the corporations on party lines. They were often incompetent and did not have the respect of the inhabitants.
• Juries in many boroughs were exclusively composed of freemen. As the gift of freedom lay with the corporation, they were political appointees and often dispensed justice on a partisan basis.
• Policing in the boroughs was often not the responsibility of the corporation but of one or more bodies of commissioners. An extreme example was the City of Bath, which had four districts under different authorities, while part of the city had no police whatever.
• Borough funds were “frequently expended in feasting, and in paying the salaries of unimportant officers” rather than on the good government of the borough. In some places funds had been expended on public works without adequate supervision, and large avoidable debts had accrued. This often arose from contracts being given to members of the corporation or their friends or relations. Municipal property was also treated as if it were only for the use of the corporation and not the general population.

The commission concluded its report by stating that:

…the existing Municipal Corporations of England and Wales neither possess nor deserve the confidence or respect of Your Majesty’s subjects, and that a thorough reform must be elected, before they can become, what we humbly submit to Your Majesty they ought to be, useful and efficient instruments of local government.

Possible errors & omissions in tagging. What tool would one use to draw this network?

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