Gaskell Memorial Hall, Silverdale, meeting place of the Silverdale branch of the LNU in use by 1932
The Silverdale League of Nations Union (LNU) was one of the earliest members of the Lancaster LNU District Council, which had been set up to co-ordinate the existing branches in an area extending from the River Wyre to the Northern and Eastern borders of Lancashire. Silverdale’s population in the early 1900s consisted mostly of a number of wealthy residents, farm workers and quarrymen. There was some tourism. (1)
A report in the ‘Lancaster Guardian’ on the branch’s AGM in March 1934 suggests the membership in the year 1932/3 was 84, increasing to 88 the following year. Meetings were held at the Gaskell Memorial Hall in the village. The report shows that the branch consisted of a Committee with elected officials including President, Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, the latter providing properly kept accounts, with a quota being sent to the London Headquarters. After the branch’s AGM on 23 March 1934, the Rev. Frank Coleman, the minister at the Dickson Road Unitarian Church in Blackpool gave a lecture entitled ‘The League and Modern World Problems.’ The branch involved youth groups in the area, as the 1st Silverdale Girl Guides performed a play and sang folk songs during the meeting.
References/Further Reading:
(1) T. Bulmer & Co, 1913. Bulmer’s History & Directory of Lancaster & District, 1912. Preston: Snape for Bulmer.
Lancaster Guardian, 22 Mar 1924 & 23 Mar 1934.