ABSTRACT
The threat of invasion in 1803-5 has been regarded as a defining moment in British history, uniting the nation in expressions of patriotism and a common British identity. This sense of unity did not, however, irrevocably eradicate social and political divisions in the provinces. Conflicts among local middle classes were channelled into the undoubtedly genuine patriotic endeavours pursued in preparation against the French. Britishness was thus filtered through provincial and social prejudices and identities. Disputes in two of the most rapidly populating towns in Britain illustrate that expressions of patriotism could be socially and politically divisive as much as unifying. They furthermore demonstrate that loyalism was still very much a contested ideology in the 1800s as it had been in the 1790s. It did not necessarily remain locked in the old reactionary values of ‘Church and King’ for all its myriad adherents, but encompassed wider principles of provincial independence.
