Althorne Players

No history of Althorne would be complete without a mention of the Althorne Players, the amateur group of players who staged their productions in the St. Andrew's Church Hall. The organisation was started towards the end of the Second World War to help bring life back into the village. Walter and Nora Price, who had moved into the village from Southend, were the ones who first suggested starting up an amateur dramatics group in 1944, and persuaded other talented villagers to join them. They were the driving force behind the first eleven productions. In 1948 Walter and Nora decided to emigrate to Australia, much to the dismay of the Players. The Players continued to produce a further nine shows over the next five years, but some of the surviving members though it was never quite the same.

The Althorne Players staged a total of twenty productions between January 1945 and May 1953 and all were staged in the Church Hall. The first production was 'Mother Goose' which was staged in January 1945. To think that these productions were staged in such a small hall was quite an achievement. The hall floor area has not changed since the hall was built in 1909. In the early days they used to pack as many as 150 people in the hall. However, one hundred years later, with stricter health and safety legislation, the maximum the hall is licensed for is just 80 people. When you look at the photographs of the stage, scenery and cast it makes you wonder how they managed to stage the production and still have enough room for an audience. The picture on the right shows the cast and the Guild Hall scenery in the Dick Whittington production staged in January 1947. This was just one of the scenery changes, there were about seven altogether in this one production. The scenery for all the productions was painted by Norman Carr, a very talented local artist who lived down by Althorne Creek, and was constructed by Mr Westbrook and Mr Amor.

A well known musical director, Mark Lubbock, who lived at 'The Forge' in the village, went to see the show and was so impressed that he suggested to the BBC that they should consider making a programme around the Althorne Players production of 'Dick Whittington'. The BBC agreed and a programme called the 'Village Pantomime' was broadcast on the BBC Home Service at 4.00-4.45pm on 17th March 1947.

The Players went on to produce and stage two further productions in that year, 'Night and Day' in May and 'The Middle Watch' in October, so all the cast and crew were kept busy.

When the Players first formed the population of Althorne was about 350, and the productions involved many of the families in the village at the time. Several of the cast were in their teens and early twenties at the time, and in 2008 there was a reunion of many of the original cast.

The reunion was prompted by the publication of a book ‘A Tribute To The Althorne Players’, which was written and published by Bryan Dunn, the son of Ernest and Helen Dunn who were members of the Althorne Players. Between them, Ernest and Helen featured in six productions. Bryan Dunn started the book project when researching his father’s history. Bryan was aided in his research by Winnie Powl (nee Lowe) and Janet Weavers (nee Matthams) who first featured in one of the Althorne Players productions when they were 15 and 14 years old. Between them Winnie and Janet featured in twelve of the twenty productions.

The book contains the details of all those involved, including the script writers, scenery constructors and the artist who painted the scenery and made the stage look like a professional West End production.. The book also details events leading up to the BBC Home Service broadcast and has many of the reviews that were printed in the local and national press, and Radio Times.

For more photo's and information about the Althorne Players visit http://sites.google.com/site/althorneplayers/ 

The black and white photograph of the scene from Dick Whittington is featured with the kind permission of Barry Davies, son of the photographer Trevor Davies, who photographed most of the productions staged by the Althorne Players.

Much of the information on this page was obtained from the book  'A Tribute To The Althorne Players' and has been included with the kind permission of the books author Bryan Dunn. Acknowledgement also goes to Winnie and Leslie Powl and their son Stephen for their assistance.

Copies of the book can be purchased by contacting the Powl family by e-mail: spowl@btinternet.com, or by telephone: 01621 740084.

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Last modified: May 05, 2010