The  Soup Kitchen, Cottage and Temperance Hall, New Road, South Molton

Researched and written for South Molton Archive by Shirley Bray -  1999 slightly revised 2003

In 1861 John Gilberd Pearse of Broomhouse, a local Solicitor, decided to build a Temperance Hall in South Molton.  He gave a piece of land known as Shaddock’s Close situated in New Road and instructed Mr. John Cock junior to erect the building.  The following year, whilst the work was under construction he decided to add a soup kitchen.  The soup kitchen was to provide nourishment for the poorer inhabitants of the town during the winter months whilst the Temperance Hall was intended to encourage them to give up the evils of drink!   The finished buildings consisted of a soup kitchen, a caretaker’s cottage and hall.  The first trustees appointed were John Gilberd Pearse, Elizabeth Augusta Pearse (his daughter), John Gilberd Pearse (his son), Robert Jennings Crosse (his son-in-law) and Narcissus Collins Hathlerly (his son-in-law).

Under the terms of the gift, the use of the premises was granted to The Royal Albert Temperance Association and to the members of an association called the Mothers Meeting to meet at such hours or times as the Trustees thought “proper”.   Soup was to be distributed to the poor at such a price and upon such terms as the Trustees thought suitable with a responsible person occupying the cottage for a small rent in return for looking after the premises and preparing and distributing the soup. If members of the Royal Albert Temperance Hall Association did not meet for six consecutive calendar months, the ownership of the cottage, soup kitchen and temperance hall were to revert to J. G. Pearse the younger or his heirs.

At the opening ceremony held on the 4th September 1862, a poem was read out and a copy presented to the generous benefactor.  The author is unknown but the second verse suggests that he was a teetotaller.

A Temperance Hall has long been wanted, still

All men have not the power who have the will

To do a noble deed.  Oh may this room

Become the means of saving from the doom....

The inevitable doom of drunkenness which awaits,

And is the lot of all inebriates!

If such should happen, perhaps the other door

Which leads to the Refectory for the poor,

Will be less needed.  But, should want e’er come,

As come it may, in the most frugal home,

And ofttimes unexpected, here we see

Provision made to meet gaunt Poverty.

Nutritious soup, of which, for simple fee

All may partake, whatever their degree.

Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, died in December 1861 and the buildings were dedicated to his memory.   The inscription in front of the building read as follows:-

THE ROYAL ALBERT TEMPERANCE HALL

AND SOUP KITCHEN

Erected and Dedicated to the Memory

Of a Good and Illustrious PRINCE who was

born at Rosenau Castle near Coburg on the 26th of

August 1819, Married to Her Most Gracious Majesty

QUEEN VICTORIA, on the 10th February, 1840, and

Died at Windsor Castle on the 14th of December, 1861,

lamented and regretted by the whole Nation.

Thirty years later, in 1891, John Mills writes that a quart of nutritious soup, with a lump of beef was being supplied to the applicants for the nominal charge of one penny.  

John Cock, in his book published in 1893, writes rather cynically of the Temperance Hall that “unfortunately the Teetotallers for whom the room was built, became another proof of the fallacy of promises made, in reliance on the will of the individual, - having no foundation but on the sand - and so the building remains a useful addition to the social work of the Town, but the name is - well, but a name!”

In the early part of this century, prior to the First World War, the Independent Order of Rechabites (Havelock Tent, 2003), met at the Temperance Hall on the last Friday of the month at 8pm.  The secretary of the society was Mr. W. James Taylor and the Medical Officer was Dr. W. G. Mortimer.   There was also a young persons branch of the society (Young Havelock Tent, 798), who met earlier on the same evening.  The secretary was Mr. R. Gebbett with Dr. Mortimer again acting as Medical Officer.  The Church of England Temperance Society also used to hold meetings there.

By the early 1900’s it appears that no charge was made for the soup but that costs were met from voluntary subscriptions and fund raising activities such as jumble sales and an annual concert.   The South Molton Coronation Committee divided the profit made from the local celebrations of the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902, between the Nursing Association, Coal Fund and Soup Kitchen.

The Soup Kitchen was run by a committee made up mainly of the women of the local community with the post of Chairman and Treasurer usually filled by one of the leading men of the town.  At a committee meeting dated October 13th 1916 it was reported that during the year1915-16, meat, vegetables and groceries had cost £4 14s 7d and that 14s had been spent on repairs.  The financial position was somewhat precarious and the Treasurer reports “had it not been for a concert held recently in aid of the funds, which it was anticipated would bring in about £10, the work could hardly have continued.”   He suggested that it was doubtful whether it would be worthwhile for the collectors to go round the town again, as the sum received from the last collection had been so small, he said that subscriptions had fallen to the small sum of £2.16s 0d as against £25 7s 6d in 1892-3.  Some of the collectors proposed that a small charge might be made for the soup in future and the Treasurer replied that he was entirely in favour of that suggestion “if the soup was worth anything it was worth 1d per quart”.  He didn’t think that any of the recipients would object to the proposed charge; He went on to say that fifty gallons of soup were dispensed at a time, and therefore 16s 8d would be raised.  The Mayor, Alderman Wm. Sanders proposed the motion, which was seconded by the Chairman, Mr. J. A. Kingdon JP.   There was some disagreement amongst the committee members but after discussion, the motion was carried.

By 1928, both the soup kitchen and Temperance Hall had ceased to function.  William Mountjoy of New Road, Attree Powell (Town Clerk) and Joseph John Kindgon, all signed a Statutory Declaration to say that the Royal Albert Temperance Association had not met in the Temperance Hall for many years and that soup had not been distributed since some time before the death in 1922 of Mr. Reginald Stawell Crosse, (a trustee and a nephew of J. G. Pearse the younger who had died at Exeter in 1910).  For some years Samuel Facey, who was the last caretaker, and his wife Rhoda had occupied the premises.  In June of that year the property was sold to Mr. F. B. Wyatt, a local Solicitor, for the sum of £250.  He offered the building at the same price to the South Molton Nursing Association on the condition that should they acquire it and decide not to keep it, the property was to be offered to the Town Council for £250, before being put onto the Market.   At a meeting of the Nursing Association in March 1928, it was resolved that the offer be accepted and that the property should be considered for the Cottage Hospital Scheme - the building of a new Cottage Hospital was being actively pursued at this time.

Apparently, there were some difficulties that stood in the way of adapting the property as a Hospital but problems regarding drainage and sanitation were overcome, and the Surveyor was of the opinion that the dampness of the walls etc., could be remedied.   At a meeting held in June 1928, the Nursing Association voted to go ahead with the purchase of the property for the price of £250 and to spend £34.10 on the drainage and other problems.

However, for some (at present unknown reason) the Nursing Association did not go ahead with the purchase and a temporary hospital was opened at 103 East Street later that year.  The upper storey of the North Devon Farmer’s shop (now the Stove Centre) was used as a hospital until in 1934 a new purpose built Cottage Hospital  was opened in West Street.

In October 1933, Mr. Wyatt sold the premises, at that time numbered 10, New Road, South Molton to the sitting tenants, Mr. Samuel Facey and Mrs. Rhoda Facey for the sum of £300.   In February 1934, the premises were split and “all that the land with the building (other than the Porch) erected thereon being known as The Royal Albert Temperance Hall together with the garden and fences” was sold by Mr. and Mrs. Facey to Frederick Francis Sanders (an Architect), who lived at Loughrigg in East Street.   It was after this that the door leading from the porch into the Temperance Hall was closed up, and the hall, with an upper storey added was converted into a dwelling and numbered 10A.  This was purchased by Mr. Francis William Skinner and his wife who occupied the house up until 1985 when it was sold to the present owners.

Mr. and Mrs. Facey sold No. 10, comprising the cottage, porch and soup kitchen in December 1937 to Frederick Thomas Facey of “Dartmead”, Poltimore Road, South Molton for the sum of £175.   Mr. Facey owned the premises until October 1951 when he sold the property to the present owners (Joyce and Basil Burgess) who made alterations to the interior.

The old soup kitchen, cottage and Temperance Hall are therefore now two private houses, numbered 10 and 10A, New Road (situated next to the Central Park), but signs of the property’s historic past are still evident.    The date “1862” can be seen to the left of the porch of No. 10 (look closely and you will see the outline of the door leading into the old temperance hall).  Above the front door, the space where the memorial to Prince Albert was placed is still there although the plaque has long since disappeared.

John Gilberd Pearse, Solicitor and one time Town Clerk (he resigned in 1850) was the son   of   James Pearse, Solicitor, of  South Molton.  

John Gilberd Pearse was  living at Broomhouse, Georgenympton in 1861.  His son James, who also acted as Town Clerk, died in 1861 (the same year as Prince Albert!).  At the time of the 1871 census, John Gilberd Pearse was living in Broad Street, South Molton, his occupation is given as Solicitor/Landowner and his age as 80.

His son, the Rev. John Gilberd Pearse,  went to reside in Exeter  where he died in 1910 without direct heirs.    

His daughter Elizabeth A Pearse was unmarried (aged 53 and living at home with her father at the time of the 1871 census).

Narcissus C. Hatherly (a surgeon in the Royal Navy) married a daughter, Preston Pearse.   Hatherly House (now renamed Amory House) probably derived  its name from this gentleman.  

Another daughter married  Robert Jennings Crosse, a local solicitor.

Pearse, Solicitors:

Piggotts Directory 1822/3  -  Pearse James & Son (Attorneys & Clerks to the Lord Lieutenant), Church-lane

               Pearse James, junior, Church-lane

Piggotts Directory 1830     -  Pearse & Son, Broad Street

               J. G. Pearse (& Town Clerk), Broad Street

Whites Directory 1850      -   J. G. Pearse, Town Clerk and Clerk to the Justices

               John Gilbert Pearse, solicitor, Town Clerk and Clerk to Magistrates, Broomhouse

Billings Directory 1857      -   Pearse, son and Crosse, solicitors & Proctors, Magistrates’ Clerks, Clerks to the County Court and                 agent to the Atlas Fire & Life & to the Law Fire Insurance Offices, Square.

               Pearse John G. , Solicitor etc., Square

Kelly’s Directory 1866      - Clerks to the Lord Lieutenant of the County  - Pearse & Crosse, Broad Street, & Clerks to the                     County Justices

               Private Residences - John Gilberd Pearse, esq., Churchyard

               Pearse & Crosse, Solicitors, Broad Street & Boutport Street, Barnstaple

Whites Directory 1878         -   Crosse & Day  (no Pearse’s listed)

Whites Directory 1890         -   Crosse, Day & Crosse, 9 East Street

Kelly’s Directory 1897         -   Crosse, Day & Wyatt, Solicitors, 9, East Street

Rechabite   -  Total abstainer

Sources of Information:

The Exeter Flying Post 27/11/1861

The Exeter Flying Post 2/4/1862

History of South Molton - John Mills published 1892

Records of the Ancient Borough of South Molton - John Cock published 1893

The South Molton Gazette - Saturday 6th September 1902

The Western Times - October 13th 1916

Minute Book of the South Molton Nursing Association 1914-1950

Deeds to No. 10 New Road, South Molton

Kelly’s 1910 Directory

A.R. Tucker & Son’s Illustrated Almanac and Diary for 1914

Joyce and Basil Burgess, owners of No. 10 New Road

Maria Bowthorpe and Eddie Bowthorpe, owners of No. 10A New Road