Chester Chronicle - Cheshire Memories

Tears and laughter at the glorious Gateway

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:48:55 +0000

PEGGY WOODCOCK looks back on 40 years of Chester's inimitable Gateway Theatre.

I remember the Gateway stage rippling with water for a stunning production of Pinter's emotive play Betrayal.

On the same stage I once talked to acting legends Pauline Collins, of Shirley Valentine fame, and John Alderton, currently in BBC's Little Dorrit.

These hugely successful actors memorably made clear the value they placed on small venues like the Gateway, and their determination to give support.

I remember children squealing and laughing through Charlotte's Web, Jungle Book and other Christmas productions, some of which went on to other theatres.

There was the youthful Hamlet writing red graffiti on dazzling white walls. Not for me, but, away from the classroom, a teenage audience was actually enjoying Shakespeare!

The Chronicle campaign is rightly focusing on the present, pressing for a re-opened Gateway as a way of redressing the dire situation existing for the arts in the city centre.

The strong case is being argued on these pages. Maybe some snapshots from the past will help to bolster it, to remind everyone what an asset the Gateway was to the city.

I helped report the Gateway from the early nineties, when the theatre created its own productions of wide-ranging plays like the shocking, brave, gay Torch Song Trilogy, the happy Yorkshire-set Second from Last in the Sack Race, the passionate Wuthering Heights, the thriller Night Must Fall.

Artistic director Jeremy Raison, now at Glasgow Citizens Theatre, attracted talent like actor Patrick Robinson, Ash in Casualty and then the first black Heathcliff in Chester. He went on to Stratford, is now in the TV drama Survivors.

Raison brought in household names, like Michael le Vell, Coronation Street's Kevin Webster, making his first foray into theatre as the sinister Dan in Night Must Fall.
It brought the national press to the Gateway as, later, did heavyweights Dennis Waterman, Patrick Mower and the late Ned Sherrin, when they made our theatre the first stop for their scriptwriter comedy Bing Bong.

The theatre commanded respect within the industry and helped talent grow.

And it entertained as Raison upped audience figures to more than 84% and brought a prestigious regional theatre award to the Gateway. He gave us rock and roll summers with great shows like Three Steps to Heaven, which twice went on to national tours.
I remember the relief of crucial Arts Council funding and the welcome arrival of pink seats from the Mayflower, Southampton - second-hand but such comfort! - and of Deborah Shaw, a talented director who made a success of the recent mammoth Complete Works of Shakespeare Festival in Stratford.

Passionate about the Gateway, she promised "the best of theatre, what Chester deserves and should have" and delivered with treats like a delightful Alice in Wonderland, a clever Vanity Fair and a lively version of the Hitchcock thriller Marnie.
Sadly the Gateway ceased as a producing theatre but went on delivering entertainment as a venue for visiting companies, stand-ups and other performers.

I remember laughter with Maria Gibb as a comic Joyce Grenfell, Aussie Caroline Reid, naughty as trolly dolly PamAnn, and Rodney Bewes, a delight in Three Men and a Boat.

And the fun of Hull Truck's nightclub Bouncers and football Perfect Pitch.
Colin Baker boomed through The Haunted Hotel and Rula Lenska shocked, well, some of the audience, in The Vagina Monologues.

I remember the pathos of Trestle's masked Stoneheads and the drama of death, bagpipes and Edinburgh Castle on stage for Tunes of Glory.

Soap stars came: Steven Pinder (Brookside) in Dial M for Murder, Chloe Newsome (Corrie) in Pride and Prejudice, and Scarlet Johnson (Eastenders) as Daisy Miller.
Rani Moorthy cooked curry on the same stage where, years earlier, Sunny Ormonde, as Shirley Valentine, had memorably fried chips and egg.

So many local societies entertained with opera and musical theatre, like Tip Top Productions, now keeping the Forum Studio alive.

It was here I watched school kids engrossed in a dark, mini Macbeth, and the marvellous Iestyn Edwards reduce his mini audience to tears of laughter as ballerina Madame Galactica.

You will all have your own memories of the Gateway, of productions that have made you sad, made you laugh, made you think, enriched your life.

But like me you will remember arriving to a crowded foyer buzzing with anticipation for the entertainment ahead, whatever it may be - this same foyer where once, earlier in the day, you may well have had a coffee or a sandwich lunch.

Great days. Let's get them back!

The famous day all peace broke out

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:29:49 +0000

A FOOTBALL match played this week held historical significance for those who gave their lives in the 1914-1918 Great War.

Thirty officers and soldiers from the Chester-based 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh (Royal Welch Fusiliers) played a football match in Frelinghien, France, to commemorate a brief time of peace that occurred on the first Christmas Day of the First World War.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers met their German opponents, the Saxons of the 133 Infantry Regiment and the Prussians of the 6 Jager Battalion, in no- man's-land for an impromptu game of football on what was a rare day of peace on Christmas Day, 1914.

Captain C I Stockwell, who was present at the original Truce, wrote an account of the events on "one of the most curious Christmas Days" he had ever experienced.

He describes the singing, cheering and the exchanging of beer that took place. However, after this one night of peace and festivity, the fighting was resumed the next day.

Captain Stockwell recalls: "The German captain and I both saluted. He fired two shots in the air, and the war was on again".

The football match this week was played on the site of the original Truce game. The opposing team comprised members of the German Army's Panzergrenadier Battalion 371, formed from the Saxon Infantry, who originally played in 1914.

British soldiers attended the unveiling of a Christmas Truce Memorial in the town. This Memorial displays the badges of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the Saxon infantry and the Prussian Jager. They also took part in a Service of Remembrance before the football match, taking part in a two minute silence.

The Commanding Officer of The Royal Welsh 1st Battalion, Lt Col Nick Lock, said: "We are delighted to be taking part. The Christmas Truce illustrated the basic humanity of the men from both sides engaged in that terrible conflict."

Airfields in the front line

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:33:01 +0000

Cheshire airfields had a massive hand to play in the Second World War, according to leading World War II historian, Aldon Ferguson.

At the height of of the Second World War, Cheshire had nine operational airfields, with six of them purpose-built to aid the war effort at Calveley, Stretton, Poulton, Cranage, Little Sutton and Tatton Park, while airfields at Ringway, Hooton Park and Woodford were already in existence.

These nine airfields were used by the Royal Air Force and many war-time fighters and bombers were built, while thousands of pilots, navigators and paratroopers were also trained according to the book Cheshire Airfields of The Second World War.

The book explains in depth what has happened to all nine of the airfields since the war, with only two of the sites, Ringway and Woodford still operating.

The other seven have been built over or returned to the quiet fields that they once were, with a corner of the old Cranage airfield now lying under the M6.

Detailed research takes the reader through the action during the conflict that took place at the airfields during the war, including the construction of an aircraft that was amazingly assembled in just 24-hours, before having a successful test flight within just 45 minutes.

The book also describes how the airfields helped to protect Manchester and the docks at Birkenhead and Liverpool and how training at the airfields directly affected the D-Day Landings.

Mr Ferguson has also obtained access to several interesting photographs which help the reader to picture what the airfields looked like in the early forties.

Chester Zoo's wild start chronicled in book

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:25:34 +0000

Today, Chester Zoo is the jewel in the crown of the city's tourist attractions, but a new book has revealed the storm of protest and legal wranglings that threatened its creation.

Reared in Chester Zoo tells the story of June Williams, née Mottershead, whose father George founded the zoo in 1931 when June was only five.

Now 82, she has set the record straight on the troubled history of her father's creation in the book, written by Crewe-born author Janice Madden over the past two years.

Janice now lives in Australia but made two journeys to Chester to meet June, as well as speaking to her regularly on the phone.

June tells how, having established an aviary and zoological gardens in Shavington near Crewe, Mr Mottershead set his sights on a picturesque, 11-acre site which included The Oakfield House.

But after paying £3,500 for it in 1930 and announcing his bold vision, Mr Mottershead faced fierce opposition from residents and councils.

Local children would even throw stones at June as she walked home and a petition was handed to the council containing the signatures of hundreds of local residents.

After hearing from people who feared the arrival of wild tigers, lions and "people of mixed types" in then rural Upton, Chester Rural District Council and the Chester Town Planning Committee refused to consider the proposal.

Mr Mottershead promptly hired a barrister for an appeal at Chester Town Hall on February 6, 1931.

Under cross-examination from the town clerk, he responded to fears Upton would be overrun with visitors.
"If people came in hundreds and thousands, I would raise the entrance fee," was his astute response.

As the hearing continued an estate agent, Colonel Brown, was asked if he thought the zoological gardens would benefit Chester as an attraction.

He replied: "Oh, I don't think you could expect a very large number of people coming to Chester because of The Oakfield."

After hearing numerous representations, the town planning authority and the rural district council concluded The Oakfield was not a suitable place for a zoo and aviary.

The president of Upton Women's Institute and the chairman of Upton Parish Council also gave evidence against the application.

Mercifully, the Ministry of Health granted the zoo permission to open on March 13, 1931, subject to conditions agreed upon with the City of Chester which further delayed the opening until June.

Chester City Council drew up the conditions, including one barring signs advertising the zoo. Only one sign could be erected and that was to be at the entrance.
June says they found ways to get around the legislation.

"Because council workers weren't working during the holiday, we put signs out at the start of the bank holiday and took them down the night before they came back to work," she explained.

"The biggest thrill for many years after was when you saw 'Chester Zoo' on signposts."

The zoo failed to make a profit until 1944 when a lion enclosure was opened.

"We were just getting on our feet and it was getting established, then war started in 1939," adds June.
Mr Mottershead went on to buy three farms and 26 houses as the zoo expanded to its present 500-acre site.
June says: "My father bought as much land as he could to stop it being used for urban development."
He was made president of the International Zoological Society in 1962 and in 1963 the zoo achieved its first million visitors over a year when the tropical house was opened.

Memories of 178 years of St Paul's

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:25:45 +0000

ONE hundred years after the first attempt to shut it down, Boughton St Paul's Nursery and Infant School must finally close its doors to children.

The school, in Victor Street, will close next Friday, July 18, as part of Cheshire County Council's Transforming Learning Communities which blames falling rolls across the county.

Parents, staff and governors campaigned unsuccessfully for months to save the school but finally had to admit defeat.

Chairman of governors Susan Churchill says: "For generations Boughton St Paul's school has been an integral part of the community, offering not only superb education in a small, friendly environment but providing help and encouragement to the whole family.

"Over the difficult period of the closure of the school, families and friends have come together to help maintain that support for the children and teaching staff and have shown wonderful spirit.

"We will be sending our children on with a positive outlook and a secure knowledge base and a true value of friendship to spread to their next schools."

The school was founded in 1830 when St Paul's Church set up a day school in the parish for children of the workers of the mills and the leadworks.

In 1852 an additional school, Boughton Industrial School, was built on the corner of Hoole Lane and Boughton for destitute, orphaned and neglected children.

Five years later St Paul's Day school found a new home in the grounds of the industrial school and the next 50 years passed without incident.

In 1908, the year that whippings are listed in the punishment book, attempts to close both St Paul's Day School and the Industrial School failed.

In 1941 Boughton Nursery school moved to a new premises on the corner of Hoole Lane and what was Richmond Terrace.

The school as it is known today was built in 1972 and opened in 1973 on land adjacent to the existing school - the old school remaining in ruins for 10 years before Boughton Retail Park was built.
Ten years later, the school came under a second threat of closure, this time from Cheshire County Council but campaigners succeeded in keeping it open.

In 1995 a new school hall was added before a third attempt to close it in 1999.
In December 2006 Cheshire County Council's TLC (Transforming Learning Communities) programme is launched, threatening a number of primary school in the county with closure.

Unable to avoid the chop, campaigners eventually threw in the towel and pledged to celebrate the school's 178 year history and enjoy the final terms before closing the gates for the last time.

The school will be celebrating with a service at St Paul's Church on Wednesday July 16 at 6pm and all are welcome.

From Lunatic to Countess in 180 years

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:31:47 +0000

THE Countess of Chester Hospital acquired its present title at a "naming ceremony" in 1984.
And although the West Cheshire Hospital site has been a venue for health care since 1829 it hasn't always had such a flattering name.

The site was first known as the Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum when it opened in 1829. The original building, which housed 90 patients, was designed by county architect William Cole Jnr.
In 1855, the first of a number of name changes occurred when it became Cheshire Lunatic Asylum and in 1870, it became Chester County Lunatic Asylum.

In 1889, Cheshire County Council became responsible for the asylum and in 1899 the original name, Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum, was restored.

The early years of the 20th century saw significant advances in the treatment of, as well as changing attitudes towards, mental illness.

These were reflected in developments at the site.
A new pathology laboratory was opened and in 1914, an annex was built.

In 1921, the name "asylum" was dropped and the title, County Mental Hospital, was adopted.
In 1948 the National Health Service took over the running of the hospital from Cheshire County Council and it was renamed Upton Mental Hospital.

In the early 1950s it became the Deva Hospital.

Following the amalgamation of Chester and District Hospital Management Committee and Deva Hospital Management Committee in 1965, it was renamed the West Cheshire Hospital.

In 1983, a new general hospital and an accident unit were opened on the West Cheshire Hospital site and following the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales on May 30, 1984, the present name, Countess of Chester Hospital, was acquired.

Since the closure of Chester Royal Infirmary in 1996 and Chester City Hospital in 1994, the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust has become the area's main district general hospital that we know today.

Happy memories of a real community school

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:18:45 +0000

FORMER Harthill Primary School pupil Karen Wade contacted The Chronicle with her memories of the school after seeing the photos in the recent Nostalgia pages.

Mrs Wade, who now lives in Oldfield Road, Ellesmere Port, said: "Miss Crouch was the headmistress. Mrs Lowe taught the infants, then it was to Mrs Edmunds' class, Mrs Frost's class, finishing in Miss Crouch's class for the last year. Miss Crouch retired soon after we started and the new headmaster was Mr Gilbert who lived in Burwardsley.

"We moved from Tattenhall Primary School to Harthill so my sister started in Mrs Lowe's class in the infants and I went into Mrs Frost's class. This will have been around 1978/79 when I was eight or nine.

"Mrs Frost had actually taught my mum when she was at Holly Bank School as a little girl, and she still lives in Tattenhall!

"The school really supported the local community. Mrs Vaughan from Broxton was 'fortunate' to have a van and brought most of the children in it. I think there were around 84 children in the whole school at that time - although they did not all quite fit in the van.

"I remember the harvest festival service we used to have in Harthill church opposite, which is now also closed.

"Everyone would bring in a selection of food which would all be placed around the altar for the service and then given out to the local community. My mum has a local fruit farm, so I would usually bring a box of apples fresh from that year's harvest.

"We had a netball team and we used to go around the different local schools competing in matches. We had a sports day in the sports field down the bottom of the lane.

"We used to make things to sell on the different stalls that were there. I remember making water bottle covers in school with pretty stitching on them. We also did may pole dancing. Boys and girls danced together around the pole making the ribbons twist into different shapes.

"My nephew and cousin's son recently attended Harthill school but they have now had to move to Saighton school.

"It is sad that these community schools have to close, but unfortunately everything has to be costed out and goes if it is not efficient. Why couldn't the local schools have amalgamated into one? I am sure this was looked into and comes down to how many children will be coming into the schools in the following years.

"I remember my time at Harthill with fond memories and feel sad that the local community do not have access to such schools whose input into the local area brought families together.

"Well I hope you have enjoyed my memories, it has certainly made me think about very happy times."

A service of thanksgiving for the history of Harthill School at Burwardsley Parish Church in March was attended by more than 120 former staff and pupils.

Headteacher Mo Morron said: "It was like friends reunited with Harthill pupils from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s talking about old times. Some had never seen each other since they left school."

Are you researching your family tree? Ask a question about your ancestors for Chronicle readers to answer or send us your memories of past events in Chester, old schools, people or places.

Contact Rebecca Edwards on 01244 606415 or e-mail rebecca.edwards@cheshirenews.co.uk.

Tribute time for former school

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:55:58 +0000

GENERATIONS of pupils from a school which has now closed will gather on Sunday to share their memories of days in the classrooms.

Harthill Primary School shut in February after 140 years educating the local community's children.
A service will be held at Burwardsley Church at 2pm on Sunday Mar 16 for anyone associated with the school community.

Headteacher Mo Morron said: "It will be a celebration of the life of Harthill Primary School and all it has contributed to the local community over the last 140 years.
"Some children are coming back to take part in the service and give talks about their memories of the school."

The school was opened in 1868 as a Church of England school and closed under Cheshire County Council's Transforming Learning Communities review due to falling birth rates.

The Chronicle is interested in former pupils and staff's memories of Harthill Primary School. Tell us about your school days by leaving comments.

Appeal for details about RAF hero

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:48:31 +0000

A RESEARCHER is looking for information on an airman from Heswall who died in the Second World War.
Mike Kleinlugtebeld, of Zwolle, in the east of the Netherlands, is researching the air battles over his county, Overijssel, during the Second World War.

He said: "Of each airplane that crashed I try to find information as much as possible.
"With the information I try to make a story which will help to remember the men who gave their lives in my country during the Second World War.

"On the night of April 3, 1943 a Halifax bomber of 419 (RCAF) squadron crashed in a town named Olst, some fifteen kilometres from my hometown, killing all seven crew members. They were buried in Olst.
"I have no information about this crew. I am trying to found out more about these men, which will help to give them the recognition and honour they deserve and make sure they will never be forgotten.
"One of the crew members was Flying Officer Peter Delamere Boyd, a navigator. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission he came from Heswall, Cheshire.

"I was hoping if it is possible that you print my appeal in your newspaper. Hopefully it will bring up some information and photos of F/O Peter Delamere Boyd."

Mr Kleinlugtebeld says the Halifax II DT617 VR-G was part of 419 Squadron and taking part in Operation Essen. It was shot down by a nightfighter from III / NJG 1. This was Hptm Herbert Lütje. The Halifax crashed at 11.50pm at Olst.

The other crew members were Sgt S N Hall RCAF, P/O G W Lawry RCAF, Sgt J B Langley, Sgt L H Ransom, P/O H T Macdonald, Sgt B W Agar RCAF and T/o 1952 Middleton St.George.
If you have any information on Flying Officer Peter Delamere Boyd contact Mike at kleinlugtebeld@home.nl