THE CCB'S CARLISLE EXPERIMENT remains a curious episode in the social history of the war and in the history of drink control. The experiment was, as Lord D'Abernon called it, the CCB's ‘model farm’, a place where ideas and plans, that previously been nothing more than idealistic musings, were brought into reality. In Carlisle the Board was able to implement its most radical agenda and the scheme reveals measures the Board may have taken if state purchase had been instituted nationally.

Both Henry Carter and Arthur Shadwell, author, lecturer and avid social reformer, were contemporary chroniclers of the wartime drink crisis and dedicated a chapter of their respective works to the events in Carlisle. Each relied predominantly on the official reports produced by Edgar Sanders, manager of the scheme. Thus their work, to a certain extent, corroborates the ‘official’ view of the Carlisle project. David Gutzke, in his book Pubs and Progressives: Reinventing the Public House in England 1896–1960 provides an astute analysis of the Carlisle Experiment. He argues that it was an important moment in the progressive reform of the pub, with the scheme being an ‘experimental laboratory and microcosm of the entire industry’ which provided ‘a tested blueprint for post-war reconstruction’. Other notable discussions of the Carlisle experiment are to be found in John Greenaway's book Drink and British Politics since 1830: A Study in Policy-Making and James Nicholls’ recent work The Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England. These works, however, do not signal the end of historical curiosity with regard to the history of direct control.

This chapter will discuss the reasons why the CCB nationalised the drink trade in Carlisle, taking into consideration how the scheme was run, by whom and their relation to the CCB. It will be argued that the experiment was a ‘success’ for the CCB by virtue of the fact that it wasn't a failure. The scheme exemplified the Board's most radical ideology and informs us what ideas the Board favoured if nationwide state purchase had been implemented.