Pub Tokens: Material Culture and Regional Marketing Patterns in Victorian England and Wales

This paper, based on research carried out for the author's Ph.D. thesis (1996), explores the uneven national distribution of tokens used in public houses in England and Wales c.1830–c.1920. It argues that after an initial, geographically restricted, consumer-led phase, pub tokens became a primarily supply-led phenomenon, with die-sinkers (especially those based in Birmingham) actively creating a niche for their products. The spatial patterning of pub tokens reflects their customized nature and dependence on traditional regional marketing networks.     

Paying for water: water pricing and equity in England and Wales

Over the past three decades, the business of water supply in England and Wales has been gradually transforming from the supply of a service to citizens, to the sale of a commodity to customers. The paper provides a genealogy of concepts of efficiency and equity in water regulation over the past thirty years, prior to evaluating the implications for water consumers of one aspect of this process – the shift away from policies prioritizing inter- and intra-regional equalization (implying a principle of social equity) towards policies prioritizing economic efficiency (implying a principle of economic equity) in water charging. In closing, alternatives to the current arrangements for domestic consumers are proposed.     

Calamus in Bolton: Spirituality and Homosexual Desire in Late Victorian England

In 1885 a small group of men began to meet regularly in Bolton, England, to discuss the poetry of Walt Whitman. They thought that Whitman's writings could provide the basis of a new religion, as well as offering spiritual guidance for the people in an age of mass politics. Intense friendships developed between some of the group as well as an interest in the nature of homosexuality. In order to explain their own quasi‐homosexual attachments, they created a new understanding of spiritual love and of an alternate self. These ideas influenced and were influenced by the work of Edward Carpenter.