Singing Asleep in the Deep with the Oldham P.S.A. on Saturday March 2nd 1907 in Bismark Street

I just wonder how the Tea Party and Concert staged by the Oldham P.S.A. Society went down on Saturday March 2nd 1907 in the Wesleyan School on Bismark Street.

Now I had come across the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood back in the 1970s in Ashton Under Lyne.*

They were what they said they were an organization designed to provide a pleasant afternoon with a Christian slant on a Sunday.

The first seem to have sprung up in the mid 1870s and their first national conference was in London in 1906.

There was a political dimension  “The long standing relationship between political Liberalism and Nonconformity brought active Liberals into the movement. In the early twentieth century key Labour and Trade Union leaders became actively involved in the PSA/Brotherhood Movement. 

Labour MPs Arthur Henderson and Will Crooks, and the Liberal MP Theodore C. Taylor were all present at the founding of the National Association of Brotherhoods, PSAs etc in London in 1906. 

Keir Hardie, was also actively involved, he was a main speaker for a Brotherhood Crusade in Lille in 1910. Arthur Henderson MP was elected National President in 1914. 

The National Adult School Union’s ‘One and All’ journal reported 7 out 9 ‘adult school men’ who stood for parliament were successful in 1910.”***

And so back to that tea party and concert.

Judging by Asleep in the Deep I doubt that I would have been entertained by the afternoon.

The song was written by Arthur J Lamb and composed by Henry W.Petrie and had the rousing chorus

“Loudly the bell in the old tower rings,
Bidding us list to the warning it brings. Sailor, take care! Sailor, take care!
Danger is near thee. Beware! Beware! Beware! Beware!
Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, So beware! beware!
Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, So beware! beware!"***

But perhaps I am being a tad harsh.  I dare say I would have been intrigued by the “Humorous Section.”

It was after all a serious attempt to challenge the power of the pub.

And the Oldham P.S.A. at least had an eye to how to get an audience, for the reverse of the card had a very striking image of Miss Nina Severning.

Now she was I think an actress but all I have turned up is another picture postcard sent in 1904, but there will be someone who can offer me some more information.

In the meantime I shall return to that magical afternoon in 1907, and the promise that  I shall go looking for the Oldham P.S.A. and its secretary Mr J Mcintosh.

At least Bismark Street in Oldham is still there.

It is a narrow street off Park Road, close to Alexandra Park and back in 1890 was dominated by the Trinity Chapel.




Picture; Oldham P.S.A. invitation to its Tea Party and Concert, 1907 courtesy of David Harrop

*The Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Pleasant%20Sunday%20Afternoon%20Brotherhood

** The Early Adult School and Brotherhood Movements in the West Midlands: Adult Education, Evangelism or Social Activism?, European Social Science History Conference, Glasgow, April 14 2012

***Asleep in the Deep, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE7LQv9Gj2w