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Originally Posted by Tealeaf
One peculiar thing that stands out is the number of pubs that lost their license prior to WW1 / around 1905. Does anyone have any idea why this was the case? Was it possibly competition from the Working Mens Clubs? Or possibly were some of the pubs being built at the time the equivalent of a Witherspoons establisment, thus putting the ale houses out of business?
The list does say "lost" their license; was there a temperance movement revival at the time? Anyone know the answer? I don't.
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I know that there was a very big Temperance Revival just before and after the turn of the century (19th / 20th).
Sorry Tealeaf, but I digress;
As a little aside, and in memory to those pubs now long forgotten and gone to the brewery in the sky:
Just before the turn of the 19th century, my maternal Grandad use to live in Chorley. He got married at about 22 years of age and at this particular time had 1 daughter (my Auntie Bertha). When he was about 24 / 25 he drank quite a bit and was the worse for wear on many occasions. He also got stroppy after taking a drink and was wont to take off his coat and offer the other person "to go outside and fight like a man".
Well, one day in a pub in Chorley he'd had a couple too many and got into an argument with a fellow standing nearby. The result was a fight started outside the pub and my Grandad hit this bloke in the face and knocked his eye out. The bloke fell to the ground unconscious. The crowd that had gathered all groaned and told my Grandad that he'd killed the bloke.
Grandad was terrified and thought that he would go to jail for the rest of his life. He ran home, gathered up his wife, daughter, their possessions, put them on a hand cart and made his way along the canal to Burnley, to start a new life. A "moonlight flit" if ever there was one.
He swore that he would never drink in his life again! And joined the Temperance Band of Hope. He formally took an oath, made a pledge before the assembly and swore: "never to touch a drop of demon drink again or he would go to enternal damnation"
For several years all went well and my Grandad prospered. Then one day he was on the Cattle Market in Burnley when a man from the crowd called out his name and said "Tommy Platt, you are the man that knocked his eye out and nearly killed old John in such and such a pub in Chorley". The crowd stopped and all stared at Grandad..who was by now full of remorse and sweating profusely. "Oh it's alright" said the man in the crowd " It was only a glass eye"!!!!
As a testament to his dedication and honesty my Grandad never touched a drop of alcohol again in his life. He said "I took the pledge, and I meant it, so there's no reason to change my promise"
I've a few more stories about Grandad that my dad told me when I was but a toddler (I can remember those days as if they were yesterday - but forget where I've put mi glasses).
But they will wait untill another day
