Famous faces put town hall on map

BECKY HAYES takes a look at the building's eventful history.

WINSTON Churchill, the Queen and Mick Jagger are just a few famous faces who have played a part in forging the colourful history of Kidderminster Town Hall.

The 150-year-old building has also hosted talks by Suffragette heroine, Emmeline Pankhurst and renowned Arctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, while concerts by legendary rockers, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who have earned it a place in the annals of rock 'n' roll.

The story so far is to be built upon in the coming year by a festival marking the landmark anniversary, featuring performances by groups including Kidderminster Male Choir and 1970s show band, Ballroom Glitz.

Youngsters from Wyre Forest Young Voices and a host of schools in the district will also play their part in the celebrations, while the premiere of Geoffrey Cummings Knight's folk opera, Severn Rides for Severn Lovers, will be performed in March.

The hall, in Vicar Street, was built during the economic depression of the 1850s after Kidderminster's then MP, Robert Lowe, proposed the town should have a public building.

It was decided at a public meeting in 1853 this should "be for the benefit of all classes in the town and not associated with party politics".

A company of shareholders, called Kidderminster Public Rooms, was formed, which generated £5,000 and later bought the site, an old vicarage which was being used as a solicitors' office.

A firm of architects were then commissioned to design rooms for meetings, concerts, lectures and assemblies with a convenient exchange for the sale of grain seeds, malt hops and other produce. This was officially opened as The Corn Exchange on January 4, 1855.

The music room was unveiled the following October with a grand festival featuring nationally famous artists after an impressive Hill Organ was installed.

This instrument - now one of only six in the country - is still being used today and is, along with the hall's "superb acoustics", the "pride and joy" of music groups in the town hall, said chairman of the Kidderminster Town Hall 150th Anniversary Committee, Ken Stokes.

Even up to last year, performers enthused about how they felt honoured to play at the hall after it hosted a second annual rock festival.

In 1875, Kidderminster Public Rooms wound up and the property was sold to the council and a new building was erected next door to the town hall, containing council offices and a police station.

When a new police station was built 83 years later, the council was given access to the whole building and the King Charles room was created as a bridge between the two buildings.

Edna recalls meeting Queen

A PROUD pensioner who rubbed shoulders with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on their visit to Kidderminster Town Hall almost 50 years ago remembers vividly "the wonderful atmosphere".

As a former mayoress of Kidderminster, Edna Church greeted the Queen and the Duke, whose title was then Prince Philip, on their visit on Easter Tuesday, 1957, and says they were both "easy to talk to" and "very relaxed".

The 88-year-old and her late father, Alderman Louis Tolley, who was mayor of Kidderminster, met the Royal couple in Dudley and escorted them to the town hall, where they had afternoon tea with sisters, Jane and Caroline Badland, aged 104 and 101, as part of a Royal tour of the Midlands.

Mrs Church told the Shuttle/Times & News: "Coming back from Dudley was wonderful because we were in the mayoral car and people were waving at us as we came along the road.

"The Queen was very elegant and easy to talk to ... and all the streets were lined with people."

She added of the afternoon tea: "It was very easy and very relaxed - my father sat at the table where the Queen was and I sat with the Duke.

"Then when we went to the station to see them off to Worcester, there were piles of people all around there as well," she went on.

Other distinguished guests who visited the hall included former Prime Ministers, Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Clement Attlee and Harold Macmillan and the founder of the Salvation Army, General Booth.

In 1904, a young Winston Churchill, addressed 2,000 people in the music room, where a Free Trade Demonstration was taking place, and received a chorus of For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.

Less than a decade later, in March 1910, the venue was packed out for a lecture by Sir Ernest Shackleton, called Nearest to the Pole, which was based on his experience commanding the Nimrod Farthest South Expedition, which reached within 100 miles of the South Pole.

£3.5m scheme to revamp arts centre

THE coming year will see £3.5 million plans to turn the town hall into an arts centre gather pace.

A feasibility study and user consultation has been carried out and head of Wyre Forest District Council commercial services department, Andrew Dickens, said it is hoped next year's council budget will pay for final designs and an application for listed buildings consent.

Provisional plans include improved audience seating, a public address system, control booths and backstage changing facilities for artists, he said.

A moveable curtain will also be fitted over the organ.

"Basically it will grace us with a 400-seat theatre set up to modern standards, which can bring some new touring theatre companies into the area," Mr Dickens said.

"The refurbishment is to enhance the facilities of the music room - to bring it up to present day performing arts standards. We've already had initial advice on the acoustics and the needs of modern-day theatre, so that's the point we're at now," he said.

"It's a listed building so we will build around it and enhance what we've got."

Charles Talbot, whose great, great grandfather, William, was a member of the committee which built the town hall, however said he had "grave concerns" about the refurbishment.

The secretary of Kidderminster Civic Society said: "The grave risk is that the attempt to remodel the music room for the purposes of theatre and concerts will end up with it being good for neither."

The hall was a vital asset to the town, he said: "I have great personal interest in it and have spoken on the platform on many occasions.

"It's one of the most important parts of the town and many important activities are carried out there."

Mr Dickens dismissed his concerns as "premature", however, saying the district council had hired consultants to advise them on such matters.

"That's what the next stage of design is all about," he said, "so really until that stage is complete these sort of comments are premature".

He said it was not known when work on the refurbishment would begin.

Diary dates

for festival

Saturday, January 29: Organ recital by David Briggs.

Saturday, February 26: Holy Trinity School Concert with Coseley Male Voice Choir.

Monday, February 28: Organ/lecture Recital by Tim Morris and Howard Beaumont.

Friday/Saturday, March 4/5: Severn Rides for Severn Lovers - First performance of "folk opera" by Geoffrey Cummings Knight, commissioned by Kidderminster Choral Society, and performed by choirs from local middle schools and Wyre Forest Young Voices.

Friday, March 11: Rock and pop concert by Ballroom Glitz and support rock bands.

Friday, March 18: March Medley - concert for a spring evening, with Wyre Forest Young Voices and Primary Chords.

Saturday, March 19: Mozart - Requiem Mass, Haydn - Nelson Mass, Kidderminster Choral Society with professional soloists, conductor Geoffrey Weaver.

Thursday, April 7: Hill Organ Promotion Society Organ Recital by Tim Morris of Kidderminster Town Hall.

Monday-Friday, April 18-22: Youth Makes Music Festival.

Friday, April 29: Mayor's Ball, with Gary Allcock Band.

Thursday, May 5: HOPS Organ Recital by Martin Knizia of St Anne's Lutheran Church, London.

Friday, May 6: Earth, Air and Rain - Celebrity recital of English song by baritone Roderick Williams.

Saturday, May 7: A Night at the Opera - Kidderminster Choral Society and Theodor Storms Choir, from Husum, Germany, with professional soloists, conductor Geoffrey Weaver.

Saturday, May 14: 50th Anniversary of Town Twinning Association Concert, Kidderminster Male Choir, Valentines, Russell Painter.

Sunday, May 15: Dedication of Kidderminster Town Centre and Songs of Praise Procession, Churches together in Kidderminster, assemble St Mary's Church, dedication Weavers' Wharf.

Thursday, June 9: HOPS organ recital by Christopher Allsop of Worcester Cathedral.

Friday, June 10: Kidderminster Carnival Concert, West Midlands Light Orchestra.

Friday, June 17: Pastoral Strings, including music by Vaughan Williams, Elgar and Holst, English String Orchestra, soloist Peter Adams (cello), conductor William Boughton.

Saturday, June 18: Jonathan Darby and Russell Painter's Summer Serenade.

Thursday, July 14: HOPS Organ Recital by Tim Morris of Kidderminster Town Hall.

Sunday-Thursday, July 25-August 5: Kidderminster Arts Festival, Town Hall and Town Centre.

Friday, August 19: Rock concert.

Saturday, September 3: The Valentines in concert.

Thursday, September 8: HOPS Organ Recital by Andrew Fletcher of St Thomas, Stourbridge.

Friday, September 9: Lecture by Dr Simon Thurley.

Saturday, September 3 - Saturday, September 24: Exhibition, Town Hall and Library.

Saturday, September 10: Heritage Open Day.

Saturday, September 17: Come and Sing Handel's Messiah, Kidderminster Choral Society.

Saturday, October 1: Young Performers Musicfest, final concert by young people selected from preliminary rounds on April 30 and May 1.

Thursday, October 6: HOPS Organ Recital by Marcus Huxley of Birmingham Cathedral.

Friday/Saturday, October 7/8: Music for You.

Thursday, October 13: Variety Showcase Family Entertainment.

Thursday, November 10: HOPS Organ Recital by Tim Morris of Kidderminster Town Hall.

Friday, November 18: Autumn Leaves - Wyre Forest Young Voices and Primary Chords.

Saturday, November 26: Britten - War Requiem, Kidderminster Choral Society with professional soloists, conductor Geoffrey Weaver.

Friday/Saturday, December 9/10: Kidderminster Male Choir.

Friday, December 16: The Valentines in Concert.

Saturday, December 17: Gala Christmas Concert, Kidderminster Choral Society, Wyre Forest Young Voices, Primary Chords, Holborne Brass.