The  Early  Days

We are grateful to Dr. Sylvia Pinches for letting us include material from an article that appeared in the January 2009 edition of Ledbury Focus. This is included in the text that follows and the page about 19th century theatre in Ledbury.

In 1935, a local group of enthusiasts set up their own film-making club.  Dorothy Tow (our President for many years) recalls that “about half a dozen of them started this ciné society and it really did very well.  They got quite a good membership and they made lots of films but of course they couldn’t accommodate all their members so once a year they decided they would do a play”.

And so, in 1938, the Ledbury Amateur Ciné and Dramatic Society was born.  When war came, film-making stopped, but plays and concerts continued throughout the duration at various venues.  Miss Charlotte Ballard staged a number of plays at her home, Abbey House, in the Homend, to raise money for children in the East End of London.  Miss Ballard later produced a number of LADS plays in the Church Room (see below). 

One member recalls:   ‘She was a stickler for grammar, too.  You had to get it right, you know - nothing slipshod with Miss Ballard.  I remember once one of our members, Mr Postan, had to do a little love scene on the settee with this young lady and she was watching and she [said] “No, no, Mr Postan, you don’t make love like that!  Let me show you!”  And she was a spinster lady!  She was great, yes, but no slipshod grammar!’

The Camp Theatre

During World War Two, the Italian prisoners held at the camp at Mabel’s Furlong rigged up a theatre in a Nissen hut.  When the prisoners were dispersed at the end of the war, LADS (they had dropped the ‘ciné’ from their name by then) took over the little Camp Theatre.  One lady recalled: “of course it was a tin hut sort of thing, and when it rained you couldn’t hear a word of what was being said”.  The site was taken in the early 1950’s to build the John Masefield School.

Scene from Flare Path.  We think this might have been in the Camp Theatre.

We are grateful to Angie Pulford, who forwarded us a copy of a Schools’ theatre event at The Camp Theatre on 7th December 1955.  Angie writes:

“One of my plays was performed there with actors from Cradley school and there were several other schools, including Ledbury Boys’ and Ledbury Girls’ Schools.  As I was quite young and from a little village, I wasn’t sure where the theatre was, and could not recall going to it when I was older. I therefore contacted my childhood friend (Gill Davis, whose father was the local undertaker then), and though she could not remember either, she directed me to your web site, so thank you for solving the mystery!”

The Church Room

The following photograph was taken some time in the late 1950’s, shortly after LADS moved into the old Market Theatre, which was on the site of the present Theatre.  At that time it was still known as the Church Room:

At that time we didn’t have a raked auditorium.  This came after the town’s cinema closed in 1961 and LADS was able to salvage the seating.

Also in 1961, the old Kemble Theatre in Hereford closed (in Broad Street - demolished in 1963 to make way for that dreadful monstrosity, Kemble House).  This left our little building as the only theatre in Herefordshire until 1979, when the Nell Gwynne Theatre, converted from the old swimming baths in Edgar Street, gave the city of Hereford back its own theatre.

We nearly lost our building in 1986, when a fire started by children playing in the old allotments at the back (now occupied by Harling Court) got out of hand.  It destroyed our store and rendered the back part of the building unsafe.  LADS managed to scrape together sufficient funds and was able to call on labour of young offenders to rebuild from the proscenium back, in which we were able to include toilets for patrons - but they could only be reached by walking outside down the entire length of the building - whatever the weather!  The auditorium and FoH (such as it was!) were salvaged, although considerably smoke-damaged. 

... an equally cramped control room, from which we couldn’t get a decent view of the stage owing to beams supporting the auditorium roof, right in the field of view.  Our sound kit consisted of an old cassette machine, ghetto blaster and domestic amplifier - lighting was controlled by an analogue desk (bottom right)  This shot was taken during one of our pantomimes - I still use the DX7 synthesiser (left) for musical shows.  Note the Black and Decker Workmate - partly visible to the bottom left - needed then to support the left side of the keyboard!

However, this was luxury compared with the arrangement we had before 1984 (of which I do not have any photos).  We didn’t even have electronic control of stage lights until then, so the old resistive dimmers had to be where the power was - behind the stage!  Blackouts were achieved with broom handles across the dimmer sliders...
 

The more observant among you will have spotted that this is the same piano as in the 1950’s photograph above.  It survived the 1986 fire (more damage was done by water used to put out the fire than by the fire itself).  Thus it was with some regret that we parted company with the last remaining artifact from the old theatre, but it simply wasn’t practical to keep on heaving a quarter-of-a-ton of cast iron and wood onto the stage and then back down again, as required by the increasingly varied shows we now host (not to mention the risk to piano and personnel).  So we splashed out on a new Yamaha Clavinova digital piano (one third the weight).  We’re glad to say the old lady has been given a home by one of our members where, no doubt, she is receiving loads of Pledge and TLC.