Hastingleigh.com      A genealogy website/One Place Study                                                                                                                                       contact e-mail                           Theatricals & Musicals                                      Theatrical & Musical activities Villagers have been entertained by theatrical and musical events for many years. Evington Place Manor House hosted Victorian house parties which included shooting events, sports events and amateur dramatics in the 19th and early 20th century and quite possibly earlier than this. From the  Newspaper report below, they played to an invited audience of civic and military dignitaries. These shows for the gentry, by the gentry, ceased when Evington Place was vacated in the early 20th century and it was pulled down in 1938. The article indicates that these were annual events.                                                                                                                    1863  leaflet advertising the performances to take place at Evington Place, which was the                                                                                                     ancestral home of Sir Courtenay Honywood. Baronet.                 Newspaper Article describing the events of 1863 (click picture to enlarge it) After WW2 in about 1950, an amateur dramatic society was formed to give a creative and artistic outlet to people in the area and to raise funds for the building of the new village hall, now called Evington Hall. It is sited on land that was part of the Evington Estate, and geographically is in Elmsted Parish, though the border of Elmsted with Hastingleigh extends almost to the centre of Hastingleigh village. Prior to the building of The Village Hall, Parish meetings and indoor events usually had taken place in the Old Mission Room on Tamley Lane, which had been funded and built by the generosity of the Rev. Anthony Collett, Vicar of Elmsted & Rector of Hastingleigh. With dances being held at Bodsham School for many years there was never any lack of enthusiastic participants for theatrical events. The Amateur Dramatic Society became known as the Evington Players, and for more than half a century, they have regularly put on plays and musicals, and a large number of the people of Hastingleigh, Elmsted and surrounding areas, have been involved in one capacity or another over the years. Local events are now organised by the E.C.P. (Evington Community Project.)

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