Temperance
I have no doubt the town was in dire need of a Temperance Society when it was founded in 1839, what with the usual heavy Yorkshire drinkers being joined by the contingent of Irish navvies imported to build the railway. They must have managed a fair few gallons between them, a lake or two of ale.
The Rotherham and Masbrough Temperance Society was founded on June 14, 1839 following a lecture held in the Court House regarding the principles of "total abstinence from intoxicating drinks"
. Meetings were then held every Tuesday evening at the British school-room and were so successful the movement was still strong in the 1880s. The purpose of the group was to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed in the borough by educating persons on its ill affects. Doubtless many of the undeserving poor had them down as middle class spoil sports.
So worried were some of the worthies of Rotherham about the evils of drink that in 1877 the Workman's' Coffee and Cocoa house was opened on Wellgate.
This was so successful that larger premises with rooms for activities, the St George's Hall, was opened on the corner of Howard Street and Effingham Street the following year. This later became the Masbrough Literary and Mechanics Institute. It flourished for many years, providing a newsroom, library and a school of Science and Art, whilst papers on many subjects were read at the monthly meeting. Other Mechanics Institutes existed in the area e.g. at Wentworth. They were often the means by which the ordinary working man could better himself. The Coffee House was demolished in 1892 to make way for a bank, but the building that housed the Mechanics Institute is still there on the corner.