Sedge Lynn …….. the missing picture

Now I am looking at a photograph of Sedge Lynn on Manchester Road.

Two Sedge Lynn's .... for the price of one picture, circa 1907-1920

It stood on the site of what was the cinema and later still the Co-op Undertaker’s and its name has now been appropriated by the Wetherspoons pub which in turn was once a temperance snooker hall.

The house dates from 1882 and was the home of the Booth family, who occupied it from when it was built till it was demolished in 1919 or 1920.

It consisted of eleven rooms and the rear offered up views across the fields towards Stretford.

Sedge Lynn, circa 1907-1920

The house and the family have fascinated me for a decade, and I have written about them along with the story of the cinema and the temperance hall. *

Mr. Arron Booth was a successful businessman and a photographer, and we have some fine pictures taken by him of Chorlton in the 1880s, including one looking out on the back garden and across to Longford Hall when the area was still open land and known as the Isles.

One of his daughter’s Ann Shepley Booth owned a private school on High Lane which later transferred to Napier Road, in what appears to be a swap with a Mr. Dadley.

He ran a Grammar school was looking for a larger premises and so transferred his school to 59 High Lane, and later extending into the neighbouring property.

But for those more interested in the Weatherspoons next door, is that irony that it began as a temperance hall, built by the Temperance Billiard Halls company with office in Pendleton.  In 1911 the company had halls across the city and beyond.**

The Temperance Hall, circa 1907-1920

These included Moss Lane East, Stockport Road, Rochdale Road, Ashton Old Road, Bury New Road, Broad Street, Eccles New Road, Liverpool Road, Station Road, Altrincham, Cross Street Sale, Manchester Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, Hyde Road in Gorton, Stretford Road, Old Trafford and Cheetham Hill Road. 

All were built to a basic design with those large windows along the roof to admit the maximum amount of daylight.  Some still survive but have morphed into different uses, from a restaurant in Urmston to garages and supermarkets.

Ours in Chorlton long ago lost its temperance connection but remained a place to play snooker until quite recently.

Leaving me just to thank George Cieslik who kindly gave me permission to use the image and point out that the lamp post outside the house was still there in the 1950s.

Location; Manchester Road, Chorlton

Picture; Sedge Lynn circa 1907 -1920, from the collection of George Cieslik

*Sedge Lynn, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=Sedge+Lynn

**Temperance, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Temperance