Temperance lives and landscape: Lady Elizabeth Biddulph, Lady Henry Somerset, and late nineteenth-century Ledbury

Beckingham, David; Watkins, Charles

Abstract

This article considers the relationship of two prominent leaders of British women’s temperance, Lady Henry Somerset and Lady Elizabeth Biddulph. They were noteworthy for taking opposing sides when the British Women’s Temperance Association divided on the question of the political reach of its work. Somerset and Biddulph were elite women, daughters of earls and near neighbours around Ledbury, a centre of cider apple and hop cultivation in Herefordshire. Both made their first temperance pledge in the area. We examine their geographical proximity and consider the importance of local agricultural labour and landscapes to their temperance work.

Citation

Beckingham, D., & Watkins, C. (2024). Temperance lives and landscape: Lady Elizabeth Biddulph, Lady Henry Somerset, and late nineteenth-century Ledbury. Rural History, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956793324000013

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 21, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 28, 2024
• Publication Date: Feb 28, 2024
• Deposit Date: Feb 29, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 29, 2024
• Journal: Rural History
• Print ISSN: 0956-7933
• Electronic ISSN: 1474-0656
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956793324000013
• Keywords: Urban Studies; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); History; Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/31892401
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/rural-history/article/temperance-lives-and-landscape-lady-elizabeth-biddulph-lady-henry-somerset-and-late-nineteenthcentury-ledbury/024D96E8ECA5D4F2C2429A10C079AEEF
• Additional Information: Copyright: © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press; License: This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is used to distribute the re-used or adapted article and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use.; Free to read: This content has been made available to all.