At first, the movement preached moderation, urging people to avoid wine or spirits but allowing beer in small quantities.
The temperance pledge was then created in Preston in 1832 and asked followers to promise never to drink alcohol again.
This led to a “parallel existence” for those who followed the temperance movement, Davison says.
Hotels, halls and institutes were created where non-drinkers could attend classes, borrow from libraries, go to reading rooms and subscribe to newspapers.
“The temperance movement promoted pubs without beer, which sold soft drinks, tea and coffee and cocoa, they sold food, which a lot of ordinary pubs around the country didn’t do in the mid-19th Century,” says Davison.
“It arrived at a time when people were quite receptive to the increasing realisation that alcohol was harmful.
“It was causing damage in society. It’s very hard for us today to understand just how all pervasive alcohol was in the in the early to mid-19th Century.
“Housing, particularly for the working classes, was incredibly poor quality. And drink was all pervasive.
“You read all the time, if you look at newspaper reports and so on, people just lying drunk in the streets.”