“Animals are my friends…and I don’t eat my friends.” – George Bernard Shaw
The
radical city of Manchester has and continues to change eating habits for many people. Independent food co-op
The Eighth Day (111 Oxford Road) has a shop and a café in central Manchester. It’s part of a growing vegetarianism within
Greater Manchester. Everything from food festivals (e.g.
Plant Powered Sunday), vegan fairs, beer festivals and club nights can be found within the city.
“Now I can look at you in peace; I don’t eat you any more.” – Franz Kafk, German-speaking Bohemian novelist
William Cowherd died in Salford during 1816. He’d lived around that way for some time. Well done him.
Salford, for those outside of Manchester, is
a city that is west of Manchester. It is part of Greater Manchester, and when the news is positive, we Mancunians claim Salford as our own, but when it’s negative, Salford stands alone.
“As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.” – Pythagoras, ancient Ionian Greek philosopher
For example,
Salford Lads Club (est. 1903), is famous for a photo of The Smiths nearby by photographer Stephen Wright. That’s positive and claimed by Manchester. Murder for example, well that happened in Salford and has nothing to do with Manchester. Salford/Manchester’s William Cowherd advocated vegetarianism and in 1847 his philosophy founded the
Vegetarianism Society (in Altrincham, just south of Manchester).
“William Cowherd, the founder and minister of Christ Church, Salford, died 24th of March, 1816, aged 53 years. At his request is inscribed, ‘All feared, none loved, and few understood.’ ” – The words of William Cowherd’s tomb at Christ Churchyard, King Street, Salford.
Popular with his followers, Cowherd gave free medical services, a lending library without cost and soup (vegetarian, obviously). Having trained at Beverley College, Yorkshire, Cowherd moved to Manchester in the late 18th Century.. Heavily-influenced by 18th Century Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, Cowherd went his own ways after jumping ship from the Church of England to the Swedenborgian church
before he went solo.
“Eaters of flesh could you decry; Our food and sacred laws; Did you behold the lambkin die; And feel yourself the cause?” – Hymn against flesh eating
Reverend William Cowherd established the Bible Christian Church in 1809. Located on King Street, Salford, his church broke away from the
Swedenborgian New Church. He and his
congregation [known as Cowherdites]
vowed not to eat meat or other intoxicants. Born in 1763, William Cowherd, headed from his native Carnforth (Lonsdale South of the Sands). A keen writer, Reverend William Cowherd’s work could be found from the
New Jerusalem Journal to the catchily named
Liturgy of the Lord’s New Church. Various works of his were printed locally at the Manchester Printing Society. Considering Cowherd, which is a strange name for a man who hated eating meat, was only around for 53 years, his church managed to reach
America [
Philadelphia Bible Christian Church] and push the
cause of vegetarianism and form of temperance to a wider audience. Other temples opened around Manchester for the Bible Christian Church, with one on Every Street just down from what is now known as the Etihad Stadium.
“It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.” – Albert Einstein
So, Cowherd convinced a group of congregates not to eat offal (stomach and intestine) etc. The poor were
rarely able to invest in higher cuts of meat. These Cowherdites, his flock, went on and before you knew it meat was murder and
the Vegetarian Society was born. At this time, vegetarianism was met with disdain. Nobody knew how the health effect would be. Few had studied it. Few had gone that way. Deaths within the Cowherdites were blamed on a lack of meat and two veg in their diets. Intellectuals throughout urbanisation and cities began to debate the ethics of killing and eating animals.
Vegetarian restaurants in Victorian Manchester flourished.
“The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.” – George Bernard Shaw
https://acton28.blog/2020/06/15/cowherd/
From me blog.
