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

"Away, away with rum by gum"* ..... The Temperance Movement .... today on the wireless

Now I have always been ambivilent about the The Temperance Movement., and have said so.*

Spreading the message,Temperance Meeting in Manchester, 1910

One side of me joins in with silly, and cheap jibes at people who don't share my love of a fine wine, and a night out in the pub. 

But I recognise they were not kill joys, but were acting on a real concern at the destruction caused by excessive drinking, especially in working class areas. 

We shouldn't forget that it was still the cuustom at the end of the week to pay workers in pubs, with all the dangers for their wages to be lost in an alcholic night. 

And for many of those "Temperance People", it was also a revulsion at the huge profits made by the brewing industry, so we shouldn't be surprised that amongst the ranks of the campaigners were many who were in "progressive politics.

 

Temperance Demonstration, undated

All of which is an introduction to the Temperance Movement, from the In Our Time series on BBC Radio, which will be broadcast at 9 am today and then is available to listen to later in the day. 

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the momentum behind teetotalism in 19th Century Britain, when calls for moderation gave way to complete abstinence in pursuit of a better life. 

 Although arguments for temperance had been made throughout the British Isles beforehand, the story of the organised movement in Britain is often said to have started in 1832 in Preston, when Joseph Livesey and seven others gave a pledge to abstain. 

Temperance Billiard Hall, Chorlton, 1958

The movement grew quickly, with Temperance Halls appearing as new social centres in towns in place of pubs, and political parties being drawn into taking sides either to support abstinence or impose it or reject it. 

 

With Annemarie McAllister Senior Research Fellow in History at the University of Central Lancashire James Kneale Associate Professor in Geography at University College London And David Beckingham Associate Professor in Cultural and Historical Geography at the University of Nottingham Producer: 

Simon Tillotson" 

Pictures; Band Of Hope, Open air Temperance Meeting in Manchester, 1910, m68996, Temperance Demonstration, m18044, Temperance Billiard Hall, Chorlton, November 1958, A.H. Downes, m18044, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council,  http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*"Away, away with rum by gum,"* signing the pledge to forgo the demon drink, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2018/04/away-away-with-rum-by-gum-signing.html

**The Temperance Movement, In Our Time BBC Radio4,, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013zl8