The lives of the poorest people were very hard, and it must have been a welcome change for workmen to have a drink with friends in the evening after work.
For some families though this was a luxury they could not really afford, and the fathers were spending money on drink which should have been spent feeding and clothing their children.
In Victorian times there were no
official opening hours for pubs, but it was illegal
to drink during the time of church services.
In the extract below PC Jones records a Sunday morning on the beat.
"I was visiting Public Houses and beer shops on Sunday morning in church time. I saw no one drincking"
It
reads: