This post features Twickenham's Mary Wallace Theatre, St. Mary's Church and The Barmy Arms.
Tucked away on Twickenham’s riverside opposite Eel Pie Island, sandwiched between St. Mary's Church on one side, (east), and the Barmy Arms pub on the other, (west), sits the Mary Wallace Theatre, home to the Richmond Shakespeare Society, (RSS). The amateur-dramatic society and members’ club puts on about eight plays a year by a variety of playwrights, from ancient Greece to the modern day. There are also shows by Youth Theatre groups, including the RSS YAC (Young Actors Company), the theatre also hosting a variety of social events throughout the year, with the bar open to members on weekends.
Today's theatre building has a chequered past. The land was donated by John Bowyer in 1869, and built upon in 1870 as a Mission Hall designed by Robert W. Edis, and attached to St. Mary's. In 1892 an annexe serving as a soup kitchen was built providing hot food for those in need during hard weather. It has also been a private residence, a school and a Scout hall. The building eventually became derelict and was at risk of demolition, but several years of fundraising by the Committee and membership followed, aided by generous donations from the public and, in particular, the legacy of actress Mary Wallace who served as club secretary from 1956 until her death in 1977, and after whom the theatre took it's name.
The RSS was founded in 1934 by Gladys Eriksen, former actress and dancer, with a production of "Much Ado About Nothing" at the old St. Mary's Hall in Twickenham. There followed 70 years of Open Air Theatre, initially in the Terrace Gardens on the slopes of Richmond Hill from 1935 to 1970, then back to Twickenham at Marble Hill House from 1971-1987, and in The Fountain Gardens at York House, (home to The Naked Ladies), from 1988 until the present time. Throughout the war years, and with restricted male membership, the Society provided entertainment in large air raid shelters and Red Cross centres, performing Shakespeare in the Terrace Gardens as part of the government's "Holidays at Home" scheme.
Richmond Council granted the RSS a Peppercorn Lease, while a local construction company, Speyhawk, proved to be sympathetic and generous. The National Theatre donated materials for the stage, seating was rescued from a soon-to-be-demolished cinema in Hammersmith – and the Mary Wallace Theatre was formally opened as part of Twickenham’s 900th year celebrations by some bloke who came down the Thames in a boat, (Prince Charles), in May, 1981. Since then it has provided a permanent home for the society.
Maximum seating capacity is 96, and it's cosy. I can say from experience it's a comfortable space, although it can get a little stuffy on a warm summer evening. As well as the plays, the auditorium, foyer and bar host various other artistic projects and talks, and the Society, one of the area's premier drama groups, holds a unique place in the community.
The highlight of the Society’s year, and its raison d'être, remains a summer open-air production of Shakespeare. Sadly, plans to stage “The Importance of Being Earnest” this July, (2020), in The Fountain Gardens at York House have, predictably, been cancelled due to Covid.
St. Mary’s church, looking south
The theatre is out of frame about thirty yards S.W; as is The Barmy Arms for that matter, if you add another twenty yards or so; the river is a similar distance due south from the church.
I should give some background on the church itself, which offers an unusual contrast of styles by way of a mediaeval ragstone tower joined to a red brick Queen Anne nave and chancel. (For me the red brickwork is unsympathetic in colour and style to the tower, but what do I know? And there may well have been financial and / or other constraints I'm unaware of). Anyway. The 15th century tower is the survivor of an earlier building which was probably itself even older, and which collapsed on the night of April 9th 1713.
It's thought there may have been a quite simple building on the land in Saxon times, but the earliest recorded incumbent was presented on November 12th 1332. This said, an earlier reference to "Alan, vicar of Twickenham" appears in the accounts of Richard Earl of Cornwall for 1296/7. The land here, a rising promontory beside the River Thames, was probably chosen as a landmark, and a place of refuge in times of trouble.
The old building was in such a poor state of repair by the early 1700s that the vicar at the time, Dr. Pratt, refused to conduct any more services within it. Records show that pillars, possibly erected to replace walls during the previous century, were on the point of collapse, and emergency repairs were under discussion just three days before the building fell on the night of April 9th 1713. Only the tower was left standing.
The Churchwardens at the time were Sir Godfrey Kneller (1649-1723) of Kneller Hall, the court painter, and Thomas Vernon of Twickenham Park, formerly Turkey merchant. About £1,300 was swiftly raised, though the final costs were greater, and work started immediately on rebuilding, which was completed by the end of 1714, in the reign of the new King, George I.
The architect was John James (c1672-1746) who some three years earlier had been responsible for building Orleans House for Secretary Johnston. His work for St. Mary's was restricted by having to build over the site of the old church, and also by having to incorporate the ragstone tower into the new building. Looking up at the inner wall of the tower from the nave of the present church reveals the alignment of the tower to be slightly askew, though from outside this isn't so apparent.
Today, the repairs to the church show an unusual contrast of styles by way of the surviving 15th Century mediaeval ragstone tower joined to a red brick Queen Anne nave and chancel. For me the red brickwork seems unsympathetic, both in colour and style, set against the tower, but the trained eye may well conclude otherwise. Or there may have been financial and / or other constraints I'm unaware of. Looking up at the inner wall of the tower from the nave of the present church reveals the alignment of the tower to be slightly askew, though from outside this isn't so apparent.
Before closing this post, a return to the theatre, and the beautiful setting, which comes at a cost. Production runs must be wary of Wednesdays when, between 8:15 and 9pm each week, bell ringing practice takes place at the church. The performance schedule accommodates this simply by skipping Wednesday's. (The ad-libbing required to try and make that sort of "interruption" seamlessly melt into, or even enhance a play would obviously depend very much on the play in question and the actors involved, but with the best will in the world it's hard to imagine any play turning 45 minutes of bell ringing practice into something viewed by any audience as a positive). To be fair, bell ringing has been around rather longer than The Mary Wallace Theatre, pre-dating it with its arrival by way of St. Mary's original and retained tower by at least four hundred years.
For the remainder of this post I’m assuming the bell ringing performed in St. Mary’s old tower was the form known as change ringing, where a set of tuned bells are rung in a controlled manner in order to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as “changes”. These are either memorised by the bell ringers, or controlled by a conductor. This form originated following the invention of English full-circle tower bell ringing in the early 17th Century, when bell ringers found that swinging a bell through a much larger arc than that required for swing-chiming gave control over the time between successive strikes of the clapper.
If that comes as news to you, I can assure you you're not the only one.
In the 1800s change ringing began to fall in social esteem, with participants increasingly populated by so-called village riff-raff smoking, swearing and drinking in church towers across the country. It was not uncommon for one or more barrels of beer to be taken up the tower, often contributing to riotous behaviour, and presumably not helping when trying to recall change ringing sequences! As far as St. Mary’s goes, bell ringers intent on a drink or two would’ve been spoilt for choice as far as nearby public houses were concerned: The Fox, (originally, and perhaps tellingly, called The Bells when built in 1670, being renamed The Fox in, and since, 1749); The Barmy Arms, (originally named The Queens Head when first established back in the 17th Century); and The Eel Pie which opened in 1777.
Unsurprisingly, a serious rift developed between ringers and clergy, with some towers actually closed by their incumbents, leading the ringers to break into the belfries to ring, or drink, or possibly both. During these turbulent times in the bell ringing community, this typically independent-minded group sometimes reserved the right to choose when to ring. High Wycombe in 1832 offers an interesting example when bells rang out to celebrate the passing of the Reform Bill, but a few days later, on the occasion of the annual visit of the Bishop, the ringers refused to turn out as a mark of their disapproval at his having voted against the Bill in the House of Lords.
The Rector has the law on his / her side, but could do little against a difficult band of ringers.
Did you know that before church bells were introduced into the Christian Church, worshippers were called by simply shouting, which evolved into hitting wooden planks, playing trumpets and / or using a courier?
March 2024 update: Mary Wallace Theatre is still very much active and showing plays on a regular basis, examples including Private Lives, Othello, Heroes, One Million Tiny Plays and Cyrano de Bergerac. Pleased to say St. Mary's Church is still standing too, and the bells are still ringing, though not at the same time as the plays are being staged. Oh, and it's nice to be able to say that all three pubs mentioned in this post are still with us.
Red arrow: The Mary Wallace Theatre
Black arrow: St. Mary's church
Blue arrow: The Barmy Arms
Green arrow: The Fox
Orange arrow: The Eel Pie
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