“Plans to turn an East Midlands stately home into a centre for injured soldiers have been revealed for the first time.
Stanford Hall a few miles from Loughborough could become the UK's biggest military rehabilitation centre if the government approves the project. It would cater for 300 patients at a time and would open in 2017.
The plans have now gone to consultation and a spokesperson from the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre, to mend both broken bodies and minds, says they're hoping to get planning permission by November 2013. If the project gets the go-ahead, work could start in 2014.”
Stanford Hall a few miles from Loughborough could become the UK's biggest military rehabilitation centre if the government approves the project. It would cater for 300 patients at a time and would open in 2017.
The plans have now gone to consultation and a spokesperson from the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre, to mend both broken bodies and minds, says they're hoping to get planning permission by November 2013. If the project gets the go-ahead, work could start in 2014.”
There are also plans to renovate the old theatre, and re-open it.
Stanford Hall - showing the theatre auditorium
Stanford on Soar: Stanford Hall Theatre
Country: England United Kingdom Historic County Nottinghamshire City
Location: Stanford Hall
Location: Stanford Hall
Palace theatre, built 1938 by Cecil Aubrey Massey for Sir Julian Cahn. Interior design: J. E. Redding and Smith. Auditorium murals and painted curtain by Beatrice MacDermott. Wurlitzer theatre organ (built 1926) transferred from the Nouvelle Théâtre Madelaine, Paris (France Co-Operative College
So why am I posting this amongst my blogs? Because Patrick McGoohan performed at Stanford Hall Theatre several times in plays such as 'The Seventh Veil' {1950}, T.S. Elliots' The Cocktail Party,' and 'The Mouse Trap.' This has, as far as I am aware, not been made mention of in either of Patrick McGoohan's so called biographies. Thought is that McGooahn went into Sheffield Repertory Company and nothing else.
People who remember seeing McGoohan's performances at Stanford Hall Theatre, informed me that it was while he was acting with the Midland RepertoryTheatre Company. McGoohan was also a member of the Lincoln Repertory Company. The ladies I spoke to who saw McGoohan's performances, all fell in love with him, he was so handsome.
People who remember seeing McGoohan's performances at Stanford Hall Theatre, informed me that it was while he was acting with the Midland RepertoryTheatre Company. McGoohan was also a member of the Lincoln Repertory Company. The ladies I spoke to who saw McGoohan's performances, all fell in love with him, he was so handsome.
Be seeing you
Stanford Hall - viewed from the other direction showing the theatre at the end on the left
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487363@N02/2760616210/in/set-72157606700675506
ReplyDeleteMcGoohan spoke of *miners* lighting his Cocktail Party performance one night, when the electricity failed, and the chaps all switched on their helmets.... :-)
I've never come across him having any links with Lincoln rep however; but rep companies have been so forgotten, it's perfectly possible he did. They often had *guest* players. Sheffield had Patrick MacNee in one of their schedules, back in 1949.
Hello Moor,
DeleteThank you for the picture/document, which unfortunately I have found difficult to read due to it's size.
Yes, I'd heard that tail about the Miners, which I've always taken with a pinch of salt. I mean how many Miners were there at the Theatre at the time of the performance, and why would they be wearing their pit-helmets, or carrying Davy lamps? Which calls into question just how much light would be generated by the miners to light a stage, even if they were!
Oh yes, McGoohan had been associated with the Lincoln Repertory group, I have that piece of information from a local person who knew.
Regards
David
BCNU
The pages are from an old web-site I had a few years ago, which was set up on a free platform, but then the ISP abandoned the platform and it was lost. When I put the original copies I had of the material on flickr they were readable, but then flickr resized them all in some update of their own!! The vagaries of the internet!!
DeleteI too have wondered about the Miners Helmets story... ;-) ... Of course the Midland performed at several venues, not just Stanford (which seems an unlikely place for miners to go). To have so many miners in one performance also seems unexpected, but perhaps it was a Works Outing. It's such an odd tale that I think it must be basically true, but the circumstances which led to it are possibly unknowable.. :-D
Hello Moor,
DeleteYes, I think you have the right of it. A miners outing does seem about right, unless of course the play was perfomed at the pit, otherwise why would they have their pit helmets with them? In the summer months employers would organise holidays for their emplyees, or send them on outings in coaches. So why not organise a performance of a play.
Regards
David
BCNU
I have even given some thought to why they should have their helmets with them... :-D I would guess that, remembering this would have been back in 1953 or so, that the miner would keep his helmet safe, as a vital piece of kit. In fact, I'm sure I've seen old photos of miners leaving a pit with a box, with their kit in, in their fist. So, an outing after a Shift would make the most sense, as they would be unlikely people to want to just go otherwise from home, and if they went home first they would surely have left their kit there. On this basis, Stanford could be a likely candidate actually, as it would merit an "outing" - being the "Glyndebourne of the North", back in the day. It would also explain how there could be an electrical failure, as the place is very much it's own little village, going by your aerial photo.
ReplyDeleteMy only other query is how far is Loughborough from the nearest coal mine?...... :-D
Hello Moor,
DeleteHaving seen film of miners working at a colliery, it seems to me that after a shift working down in the mine, miners actually left their pit helmets, batteries etc hanging up in the kitting out room. But of course it's possible that miners took them home with them. My wife was just saying to me, that in the past, there were never any washing facilities at mines. Miners went home black head to foot from coal dust. In fact she had a friend whose father came home black from working in the mine all day. So coal miners would go to the theatre covered in coal dust would they? Yes, the miners could have all gone home to wash first, and then go to the theatre, but then we are back to the pit helmets, why take them with them?
The nearest colliery to Loughborough, and that of Stanford Hall was at East Leake, only two and a half, to three miles away.
On the otherhand, perhaps the play was taken to the miners at the Colliery, a bit on the lines of 'Workers Playtime,' that would then take into account a possible electrical failure, and why the miners were wearing their pit helmets. What make you of that idea?
Regards
David
Be seeing you
Hello Moor,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information on the Lincoln Repertory Company, I could only state what I was told at the time. And as we know, as we get older memories can get muddled. I did speak to one lady, who told me something of the young McGoohan's life when he was a boy, because she actually knew him at the time. She obviously knew far more than she was actually prepared to tell me.
I think we could carry on speculating about the miners attending a play McGoohan appeared in, but we'll never know for sure. Certainly there was no-one amongst the local people I interviewed about McGoohan who knew about that. As you say, "we need an old miner on the board."
Regards
David
BCNU
@ She obviously knew far more than she was actually prepared to tell me. @
ReplyDeleteNo6 would have approved...... :-D