St Mary's Village, Temperance Hall

HY40SE 64 47470 01394

Location cited following HBM List.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 12 February 2001.

5-bay symmetrical rectangular-plan former Temperance Hall with 2-bay entrance projection to rear (NE angle). Harl-pointed roughly coursed rubble. Timber framed windows to side elevations; 4-pane timber sash and case window to entrance; blocked windows remaining. Purple Welsh slate; stone ridge; corniced rubble gablehead stack to N (entrance block) gable; cement skews; cavetto moulded skewputts (missing to SE angle); predominantly cast-iron rainwater goods.

The Temperance movement developed as a result of rising consumption of alcohol in the early 19th century (taxation on spirits was lowered in 1822) and a recognition that drunkenness was doing no good for the physical or moral health of the population. John Dunlop (1789-1868), a Greenock lawyer and philanthropist, was recognised in his own lifetime as 'the father of Temperance in Great Britain' and recognised the value of a communal effort to promote abstinence from alcohol. He organised an initial meeting in Glasgow in 1829, attended by William Collins, a printer and publisher who fervently advocated Dunlop's views, and together they spread their ideas throughout Britain. A number of different temperance groups grew up from this initial idea, each tackling the problem in a different way; the idea in Glasgow was to provide an alternative to the Public House, the famous Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms developing as a result. Similar concerns about the harmful effects of over indulgence were apparent in the United States at this time, with movements towards prohibition beginning to take off. An exiled Scot living in the US brought Good Templary (an alternative form of Dunlop's original temperance movement) to Scotland in 1869 and the first lodge was established in Glasgow in this year. By 1876, 1 131 lodges had been established in Scotland between Orkney and the Borders, and total membership of the Good Templars had reached 83 717. Members of the Holm branch of the Orkney Good Templars initially met in the Volunteers Drill Hall in St Mary's Village, until disputes between the Templars and the Volunteers caused the Templars to build a new hall into which they subsequently moved their meetings. (Historic Scotland)