The temperance movement began in the 1830s in the UK and soon there were many ‘temperance hotels’ across the country, providing the usual hotel facilities but serving no alcohol.

Colonel William Malcolm of Burnfoot estate, near Langholm, (1817-1907) bought the King’s Arms inn in Langholm in 1865 and rebuilt it as the Eskdale Temperance Hotel, incorporating a hall as well as reading rooms for working men as a distraction from alcohol.

The arch below, designed by Thomas Telford (1757-1834) while a mason’s apprentice, is said to have been a doorway in the King’s Arms. It is now located in the Langholm town centre.

William Douglas, the keeper of the Eskdale Temperance Hotel, bought it in around 1887 and continued to run it until the late 1910s when he seems to have got into financial difficulties.

He had previously operated a restaurant in Glasgow and was married to Isabella Ross from Rossshire. He was joined in Langholm by his brother Robert, a coachman, and together they ran Eskdale and Liddesdale Coach Tours, with daily departures from the hotel.

Many businesses at the time issued elaborate ‘billheads’ as proof of payment or goods/service delivery to customers, such as the one below from the Eskdale Temperance Hotel issued to ‘E U Cong Church’ (the Evangelical Union Congregational Church). The details in the table beneath are not shown.