Pleasant Sunday Afternoon

[Malcolm Bull]

In the Halifax & Calderdale district of West Yorkshire, in the late 19th/early 20th century, there were several groups with names such as Pleasant Sunday Afternoon, Pleasant Monday Evening & Pleasant Thursday Evening.  They all appear to be linked to a Church or Chapel.

I have 2 questions:

(1)  Were these found in other parts of the UK?

(2)  What happened at their get-togethers?  Were they for general spiritual enlightenment & fellowship, or just to keep people out of the pubs?

Any information would be of interest.

[Bearnan]

In the 1960's I worked with a couple of girls who attended a church youth club called A Pleasant Sunday Afternoon in Aston, Birmingham. It was a typical youth group,going on outings etc. They both met their husbands there.

[Pennines]

There was certainly such a group in Blackburn, Lancs in the mid to late 1800s (at least). It seemed to be for men only - and may have been started by a Chapel - with the idea that it gave men a meeting place on what would otherwise be a time they may have gone to the pub!

[IMBER]

In Glasgow the Port Dundas Canal Boatmans Institute was established to provide for the social, moral, and religious welfare of canal boatmen and their families. It had a PSA which my grandfather attended, although he was a tram driver. I know that some RFC/RAF stations had PSAs.

Imber

[bykerlads]

There used to be the ladies' Happy Hour on a weekday afternoon at Holmfirth Methodist Chapel.
No idea what the ladies did, I just recall hearing about it in the announcements as a child in chapel after Sunday School.
Probably a social gathering with a few bible readings and prayers. A suitable pretext for respectable ladies to take a break from housework for a short while once a week.

[ThrelfallYorky]

As another Yorky, Malcolm, I'd often wondered the same! Lovely term, though, isn't it?
(Somehow, a "Happy Hour" doesn't make it into the same company - fortunately)

[bykerlads]

sorry, just remembered that in fact it was called the " Ladies' Bright Hour" - a bit more twee-sounding really but no doubt that hour was a bit of a welcome break for housewives in those days, the chance to meet and chat with like-minded women, maybe even a beacon in a week of isolated drudgery?
( this was in the 1950's - no idea how far back in time it dated )

[Barbara.H]

From the old newspaper archives, an extract from a report on a national conference of PSA delegates held in Birmingham in 1905:

Aberdeen Journal 30 September 1905
“The Pleasant Sunday Afternoon movement was started in the midlands in 1875 on undenominational lines but as an auxiliary to the Christian churches, its object being to gather men and women together for spiritual objects on Sunday afternoons.  The organisations have spread throughout the kingdom, though not always under the same name, and there are now nearly 2000 societies with an estimated membership of about 250,000.”

also this article on the Black Country Society website about the origins of the PSA:
http://www.blackcountrysociety.co.uk/articles/sundayafternoon.htm

  Barbara

[stevew101]

The Black Country Society refer to it

http://www.blackcountrysociety.co.uk/articles/sundayafternoon.htm

Steve