Blandford and the ‘Demon Drink’!

Back in the1880s, Blandford had as many as twenty nine public houses including seven that had opened following the arrival of the railway. In the surrounding villages there was another eleven.  Some regarded this as too many and considered ‘lawlessness, poverty and dirt abound more or less in proportionate to the number of liquor shops.’

Among those who campaigned against the ‘demon drink’ was the Blandford Temperance Society. They believed that alcoholism was a major cause of poverty and crime. The Society had put in a petition in August 1884 to the Licensing Authorities and signed by 244 local people. This asked the Blandford Justices not only to refuse new licenses but to reduce also the number of public houses that it considered had become a ‘prolific source of drunkenness and crime’ The Blandford Temperance Society had been founded in the early 1860s and was well-supported with well-attended meetings. It also organised social events and its Temperance Band would regularly march through the town.

Close to the junction of Salisbury Street and White Cliff Mill Street could be found the Temperance Hotel which ironically was almost next to the brewery of John Lewis Marsh. Such concerns were shared also by local journalist and author W C Amery who in his other investigations had discovered that the Bath Workhouse had been supplied with more malt whisky than all the country’s workhouses put together. Such temperance representations had led to thousands of public houses closing across the country owing to magistrates exercising their discretion to refuse to renew licences.

When the Blandford Licensing Justices refused in August 1884 to renew any licences the streets of the town were for hours beyond the control of the local police. Drunken men assembled in the streets and ‘shouted their disapprobation’ of these decisions. The crowd tried to stop the police from arresting a man and demanded he be released. The county coroner just happened to be passing and was called to help. Despite the fiercely gesticulating crowd, the police and the coroner were just able to get the man into the police station.

The coroner was again hustled for a long time when he re-emerged from the Blandford Police Station located on the corner of Edward and Salisbury Road. The unfortunate official then suffered a severe blow on the shoulder by a stick or stone from a more unruly member of the mob.  Threatening to protect himself with a stout walking stick, the coroner managed to escape. Local campaigning journalist W C Amery was also assaulted by a man excited by drink and the goading yells of his companions.

The mob continued to come out from the public houses with greater or lesser frequency. The disturbances did not cease until all Blandford’s inns and hostelries had closed that evening.

(Illustration: Blandford Police Station - corner of Salisbury Road & Edward Street.)