Assembly Rooms
Because there were so many drinking places in the village selling alcohol, a Temperance Movement sprang up in 1832 and an appeal was launched to build a Temperance Hall. In 1836 there were 692 members of the Temperance Movement in the village.
A Committee for Temperance was set up in 1875 with the object of building a Teetotal Assembly Room for the village. The cornerstone for the new Temperance Hall was laid on 3rd November 1876 and the building was probably completed in late 1877. The Trust Deeds stated that the building was not to be used for anything subversive of religion or morality.
It became the centre of social life in the village, having a library and meeting hall, in which about 300 people could be seated. Dances and church bazaars were often held there, as well as meetings of various societies. The reading room library contained carefully selected books. Although the reading room may have ceased to function when the new Reading Room on Snows Green Road was opened in 1910, the Hall continued to be used for social events throughout the 1920’s.
After the hall closed, it was sold in 1932 and used as a workshop and store room for a local plumbing and heating business. Today it is mainly used for storage.
For a fuller account of the Assembly Rooms and the Temperance Movement download the Village Trust’s publication: The Assembly Rooms by Geoffrey Fisher – 1993 [9mb]
Shotley Bridge Village Trust 