PDF of History and Shows at bottom of pages.
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HISTORY OF SANDBACH TOWN HALL
Compiled by Stewart Green © From 2013 to date.
http://sandbachwhatson.weebly.com/
E MAIL [email protected]
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TOWN HALL
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ORIGINAL TOWN HALL
An engraving by W. Alexander, F.S.A. in 1810 showed the original Town Hall next to the Saxon Crosses. It was positioned where the War Memorial now stands on the Square. The Upper Floor was for assemblies while the ground floor was for Prison Cells and Shops. The stocks were placed besides the wall of the town hall.
(1st Town Hall / Original Pre 1888)
In 1882 Thomas Hughes (.b. 20 Oct 1822 .D. 22 Mar 1896 - The writer of Tom Brown’s Schooldays) was appointed to a County Court Judgeship in the Chester District in July of that year an appointment that included Sandbach and worked out of the Town Hall.
During an archaeological survey in 2009 it discovered the foundations of the original Town Hall with its High Street Stalls under the piers of the building for selling food and included a butcher’s.
During an archaeological survey in 2009 it discovered the foundations of the original Town Hall with its High Street Stalls under the piers of the building for selling food and included a butcher’s.
2nd TOWN HALL
Built in 1888 on the same site as the original Town Hall it was a much larger building with a large upper story meeting room, with a caretaker’s office and barber's shop at street level. The Surveyor and Sanitary or Nuisance Inspector had an office in the west end in the building.
The building was demolished in 1891 following the opening of the present Town Hall in 1889.
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Built in 1888 on the same site as the original Town Hall it was a much larger building with a large upper story meeting room, with a caretaker’s office and barber's shop at street level. The Surveyor and Sanitary or Nuisance Inspector had an office in the west end in the building.
The building was demolished in 1891 following the opening of the present Town Hall in 1889.
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3rd TOWN HALL
OFFICIAL OPENING
On the 28 October 1890 the Town Hall and Market were officially opened by Lord Crewe. A luncheon was given in the new building with many local dignitaries in attendance including Mr Walter M’Laren M.P, Mr Tollemache M.P., Mr Brunner M.P..
In 1902 the Town and Market Hall was looked after by John Wood (Keeper) and by 1914 Jessie Wood was “Hall-keeper”.
By 1914 the Market in the hall was held on a Thursday and a Saturday as well as the outside market.
On the 28 October 1890 the Town Hall and Market were officially opened by Lord Crewe. A luncheon was given in the new building with many local dignitaries in attendance including Mr Walter M’Laren M.P, Mr Tollemache M.P., Mr Brunner M.P..
In 1902 the Town and Market Hall was looked after by John Wood (Keeper) and by 1914 Jessie Wood was “Hall-keeper”.
By 1914 the Market in the hall was held on a Thursday and a Saturday as well as the outside market.
3rd TOWN HALL
The site that the current town hall is built on was the original site of the “Crewe Arms Hotel”. The place below the tower is the position of the house that the Peover family owned. The building was also on the site of a Barber’s Shop (On the Corner) which was demolished to make way for construction.
In 1889 the Rt Hon. Hungerford, Lord Crewe of Crewe Hall donated the land for the new building along with the right to all Market tolls.
The foundation stone was laid on the 2 July 1889 and was designed by the architect Thomas Bower of Nantwich who was in charge of overseeing the project and who used locally built bricks made at the Ancient Britain yard in Congleton Road with construction of the building by John Stringer.
(Some books say that Sir George Gilbert Scott designed building but it is more likely that he was the architect of the 1888 -1891 building -2nd Town Hall)
The cost of the Market Hall and Town Hall was £5,000.
Mrs Jane Court of Wheelock House presented the Main Clock, with Gas illuminations in memory of her relatives the Peover family who owned the house that had been below the tower.
When the hall was completed, Lord Crewe erected at his own expense the two statues either side of the main entrance (Above the doors). One is named "Bigot", he was the first Norman who held the manor of Sandbach, under Hugh Lupus, the Earl of Chester and the nephew of William the Conqueror.
The Second statue is that of Sir Randulph Crewe, Sergeant-at-law, an ancestor of Lord Crewe who lived in the reign of King James 1 (Accession 1603 - 1625). He bought the manor of Sandbach from John Radcliffe and became Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He built Crewe Hall about 1620.
OFFICIAL OPENING
On the 28 October 1890 the Town Hall and Market were officially opened by Lord Crewe. A luncheon was given in the new building with many local dignitaries in attendance including Mr Walter M’Laren M.P, Mr Tollemache M.P., Mr Brunner M.P..
In 1902 the Town and Market Hall was looked after by John Wood (Keeper) and by 1914 Jessie Wood was “Hall-keeper”.
By 1914 the Market in the hall was held on a Thursday and a Saturday as well as the outside market.
The single bell in the tower was once used as a Fire alarm for the Fire station which was situated behind the Town Hall building (Pre 1917). The Fire brigade also used the building to test the power of the steam pumps by spraying water over the top of the town hall to see how high it would go.
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EVENT HISTORY AT THE TOWN HALL
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On the 28 January 1891 the Annual County Ball was held at the Town Hall in Sandbach.
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In January 1894 the Town Hall played host to a number of events to raise funds for the Audley Relief Fund.
The first of these was a show and party.
5 Jan 1894 (Fri) Major and Mrs Kennedy and Party, gave a benefit performance for the
Audley relief fund at the Town Hall.
Incl; “A Joint household”
with Miss Kennedy as Mrs Smithers.
Miss B Smith as Mrs Tallett.
“Lady Barbara's Birthday"
With Mr E Armitstead as Lord Verifyne
Mr Fraser as Sir Thomas Gay
Miss J Baird Smith as Lady Barbara Brilliant
Miss Baird Smith as Dorothy Daylight.
Miss Kennedy as Finniker
Mr C Kennedy as servant to Sir Thomas Gay.
“Woman's wrongs”,
With Mr Fraser as Harold Woodleaf
Miss J Baird Smith as Camelia Buskint.
with Mr Ford's string band.
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Between 1894 and 1910 there was the Sandbach Amateur Dramatic Society, who performed shows at the Town Hall with profits going to local charities. Details of the group are sketchy but the first known show was performed on the 6 February 1894 at the town hall and was “The Screw Loose”, a comedy by Mark Melford with the following cast.
6 Feb 1894 THE SCREW LOOSE Sandbach Amateur Dramatic Society
By Mark Melford
Mr Harry Hildyard as Sir Willifer Alladay
Miss L Saxon as Lady Alladay
Mr Nock as Mr Strummitt
Mr Nixon as Major Abbott
Mr Hodgson as Mr Peckham
Mr Nicholson as Dr Pounds
Mr J Nield as Dr Pottle
Miss Whittaker as Miss Arabella Bestt
Mr Norman Hague as a Peeler
Mr A Larder as a Butler
Miss Walton as Housekeeper at Alladam Hall
Mrs Nock as Lady Alladay’s Maid
Mrs Strummitt as Mrs Williams
Scenery Painted by Mr S Ford
Perruquier Mr W Ellis of Crewe.
Orchestra Conducted by Mr S Ford
(Announced 10 Feb as Mr S Lord and was changed on the 14 Feb)
In aid of the Audley distress fund.
The show was repeated on the 7 March 1894.
As far as known this group was not connected to the later Sandbach Amateur Dramatic Society formed in 1945 and became the Sandbach Players and who also started performing their shows at the Town Hall.
The site that the current town hall is built on was the original site of the “Crewe Arms Hotel”. The place below the tower is the position of the house that the Peover family owned. The building was also on the site of a Barber’s Shop (On the Corner) which was demolished to make way for construction.
In 1889 the Rt Hon. Hungerford, Lord Crewe of Crewe Hall donated the land for the new building along with the right to all Market tolls.
The foundation stone was laid on the 2 July 1889 and was designed by the architect Thomas Bower of Nantwich who was in charge of overseeing the project and who used locally built bricks made at the Ancient Britain yard in Congleton Road with construction of the building by John Stringer.
(Some books say that Sir George Gilbert Scott designed building but it is more likely that he was the architect of the 1888 -1891 building -2nd Town Hall)
The cost of the Market Hall and Town Hall was £5,000.
Mrs Jane Court of Wheelock House presented the Main Clock, with Gas illuminations in memory of her relatives the Peover family who owned the house that had been below the tower.
When the hall was completed, Lord Crewe erected at his own expense the two statues either side of the main entrance (Above the doors). One is named "Bigot", he was the first Norman who held the manor of Sandbach, under Hugh Lupus, the Earl of Chester and the nephew of William the Conqueror.
The Second statue is that of Sir Randulph Crewe, Sergeant-at-law, an ancestor of Lord Crewe who lived in the reign of King James 1 (Accession 1603 - 1625). He bought the manor of Sandbach from John Radcliffe and became Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He built Crewe Hall about 1620.
OFFICIAL OPENING
On the 28 October 1890 the Town Hall and Market were officially opened by Lord Crewe. A luncheon was given in the new building with many local dignitaries in attendance including Mr Walter M’Laren M.P, Mr Tollemache M.P., Mr Brunner M.P..
In 1902 the Town and Market Hall was looked after by John Wood (Keeper) and by 1914 Jessie Wood was “Hall-keeper”.
By 1914 the Market in the hall was held on a Thursday and a Saturday as well as the outside market.
The single bell in the tower was once used as a Fire alarm for the Fire station which was situated behind the Town Hall building (Pre 1917). The Fire brigade also used the building to test the power of the steam pumps by spraying water over the top of the town hall to see how high it would go.
##################################################
EVENT HISTORY AT THE TOWN HALL
##################################################
On the 28 January 1891 the Annual County Ball was held at the Town Hall in Sandbach.
###############################################
In January 1894 the Town Hall played host to a number of events to raise funds for the Audley Relief Fund.
The first of these was a show and party.
5 Jan 1894 (Fri) Major and Mrs Kennedy and Party, gave a benefit performance for the
Audley relief fund at the Town Hall.
Incl; “A Joint household”
with Miss Kennedy as Mrs Smithers.
Miss B Smith as Mrs Tallett.
“Lady Barbara's Birthday"
With Mr E Armitstead as Lord Verifyne
Mr Fraser as Sir Thomas Gay
Miss J Baird Smith as Lady Barbara Brilliant
Miss Baird Smith as Dorothy Daylight.
Miss Kennedy as Finniker
Mr C Kennedy as servant to Sir Thomas Gay.
“Woman's wrongs”,
With Mr Fraser as Harold Woodleaf
Miss J Baird Smith as Camelia Buskint.
with Mr Ford's string band.
###############################################
Between 1894 and 1910 there was the Sandbach Amateur Dramatic Society, who performed shows at the Town Hall with profits going to local charities. Details of the group are sketchy but the first known show was performed on the 6 February 1894 at the town hall and was “The Screw Loose”, a comedy by Mark Melford with the following cast.
6 Feb 1894 THE SCREW LOOSE Sandbach Amateur Dramatic Society
By Mark Melford
Mr Harry Hildyard as Sir Willifer Alladay
Miss L Saxon as Lady Alladay
Mr Nock as Mr Strummitt
Mr Nixon as Major Abbott
Mr Hodgson as Mr Peckham
Mr Nicholson as Dr Pounds
Mr J Nield as Dr Pottle
Miss Whittaker as Miss Arabella Bestt
Mr Norman Hague as a Peeler
Mr A Larder as a Butler
Miss Walton as Housekeeper at Alladam Hall
Mrs Nock as Lady Alladay’s Maid
Mrs Strummitt as Mrs Williams
Scenery Painted by Mr S Ford
Perruquier Mr W Ellis of Crewe.
Orchestra Conducted by Mr S Ford
(Announced 10 Feb as Mr S Lord and was changed on the 14 Feb)
In aid of the Audley distress fund.
The show was repeated on the 7 March 1894.
As far as known this group was not connected to the later Sandbach Amateur Dramatic Society formed in 1945 and became the Sandbach Players and who also started performing their shows at the Town Hall.
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17 April 1908
DR CHARLES LATHAM MEMORIAL
Dr Charles Latham memorial unveiled outside the Town Hall. The doctor had helped the poor of the town for many years and it is thought that as he didn’t charge for his services to them they decided to commemorate his life with a monument and a fund was set up to make this happen. The Monument is now outside the Ashfields Surgery having been moved to the Part after it became an obstacle in the middle of the road and larger vehicles were in danger of knocking it over.
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In 1914 the Sandbach Urban District Council met at the Town Hall on the 2nd Monday of the Month.
Councillors at the time were,.
CHAIRMAN Alfred Ernest Poole.
VICE CHAIRMAN James Poudlove
EAST WARD (End Date for current length of service)
James Buckley (1915)
Charles Wardle (1915)
George Boulton (1916)
Matt. Hassall Eardley (1916)
Edward Butler (1917)
Walter Lea (1917)
NORTH WARD
Alfred Ernest Poole (1915)
Arthur Buckley (1915)
George Newall (1916)
James Proudlove (1917)
George Wright (1917)
WEST WARD
Ralph Ruscoe (1915)
Alfred Price (1916)
Edward Holland (1917)
OFFICIALS
Clerk = Alfred Edward Stringer (3 Crewe Road)
Treasurer = John William Trigg (Manchester and Liverpool District Bank Ltd, High Town)
(From Kelly’s Directory 1914)
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3 Feb 1915
The Crewe Parliamentary Division Recruiting Committee applied to the Sandbach Urban District Council on the 21 Jan 1915 to hold a recruiting meeting on the 3rd Feb 1915 at the Town Hall (Free of Charge).
Sept 1915
A detachment of the 3/7th Territorial Battalion Cheshire Regiment under Major Taylor visited Congleton on the Monday in connection with a Recruiting Rally of the Western Command after marching from Macclesfield.
On the Tuesday morning (28 Sept 1915) they visited Sandbach and were given a “Grand Military Smoking Concert” in their honour at the Town Hall in the presence of the Mayor of the Town. There will also be a boxing competition and local personality Ex-Sergeant, now Pioneer Noah Kennerly, of the Cheshire Regiment depot, appeared in new patriotic sketches.
8 Dec 1915
On Wednesday the 8 December 1915 the Headmaster of Sandbach School, Sidney Wallace Finn MA was officially appointed “Attesting Officer” under Lord Derby’s Scheme to recruit soldiers in the area.
Dec 1915
Khaki Armlets were distributed to the men of Sandbach who had attested under Lord Derby’s Scheme in the Town Hall on Wednesday evening.
The Town Hall was full of those who waited their turn to receive the symbol of Patriotism.
The first wave of recruits under the Derby scheme were encouraged to join up in December 1915 and had until the 29th January to report to their unit.
If they needed more time before joining up, they had until the 30 December 1915 to lodge an appeal to be placed in a later group of recruits.
(Reprinted in Sandbach Chronicle 31 Dec 2015)
RECRUITMENT SCHEME BY LORD DERBY
Lord Derby was appointed British Minister of War between 1916 and 1918 and had been brought into the wartime Coalition Government in 1915, when he was given the job of being the public face on the issue of Conscription after he had proved his support in Liverpool during August 1914 when he encouraged the idea of the PALS BATTALIONS where men from a town could all serve together in one unit.
Asquith appointed Lord Derby as Director-General of Recruitment in 1915 and he unveiled what became known as the DERBY SCHEME which was a recruitment policy where young men could give their “Assent” to being called up if needed with Single men being called up first and the government promising to only call up Married Men last.
In the spring of 1915 enlistment averaged 100,000 men per month but this figure was dwindling and it was soon decided to raise the upper age limit in May 1915 from 38 to 40 years old. On the 15 July 1915 the Government passed the National Registration Act to discover how many men were between the age of 15 to 65 and who were eligible to be enlisted. The act, like the census of 1911 asked for occupations so the Government could decide who were needed on the home front and who could be asked to join up. By Mid-September 1915 the results showed that there were 5 million males of military age who were not in the forces or in “Starred” (or Protected, High or Scarce skill) Jobs.
On the 11 October 1915 (Edward George Villiers Stanley) Lord Derby’s Scheme (or officially the “Group Scheme”) started to recruit single men to join the war and men aged between 18 to 40 with events in public places to recruit those who wanted the chance to enlist voluntarily or attest (Sign up) with an obligation to be called up later with the last date of the scheme to sign up being the 15 December 1915.
Once signed up the volunteers were segregated into groups. Those who volunteered but wanted to defer service were put into “Class A” while those who wanted to join immediately were put into “Class B”. Class A men were paid a day’s army pay for the day they Attested and were given a grey armband (or Khaki Armlets) with a red crown on it to signify that they had volunteered and were officially transferred to the Section B Army Reserve before being sent home to await their call up. Those who were Called up were done so according to age groups from Single Men born in 1897 = Group 1 to those born in 1875 = Group 23 and Married Men born from 1897 = Group 24 to those born in 1875 = Group 46. They were then mobilised between (Group 1) the 28 Mar 1916 and (Group 46) the 13 June 1916.
(See also http://www.1914-1918.net/derbyscheme.html)
In some areas like Sandbach the scheme was popular, however it didn’t produce enough men to satisfy the demand with only 350,000 putting their names forward and so in January 1916 Conscription was introduced via the Military Service Act.
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18 Jan 1918
On Friday the 18th January 1918 the Children of Sandbach School were taken by their teachers to a lecture and picture show in the afternoon by Mr Mock at the Town Hall on “War in the Air”.
25 Oct 1918
On Wednesday afternoon (23rd October 1918) all the boys from the school and all other students from the town were taken to a Lantern Lecture at the Town Hall given by Mr Mock on the subject of “War on the Land”.
EXTRA INFO.
This would have been like a slide show with a narrative being given by the lecturer and possibly as it was a lantern show some of the glass slides may have had animated parts to them allowing a moving illustration to the lecture, rather like an early form of animation.
On the 11 November 1918 War officially ended at 11am with a cease fire.
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1 February 1925
On the 1 February 1925, Foden’s Motor Works Band held a concert at the Town Hall for the Sandbach Widows and Orphans fund. The concert was organised by Mr Jones and included conductor Fred Mortimer (His first concert in Sandbach) and the tunes ‘Cleopatra’ and ‘The Acrobat’ (Bob Knott Trombone Solo).
21 November 1926
The Foden Motor Works Band played Sacred Concert at the Sandbach Town Hall in aid of the Sandbach British Legion Widows and Orphans Fund on the 21 November 1926 with Fred Mortimer conducting and included soloist Ed Lovatt (Bass Baritone) of London, Manchester and Provincial concerts with accompanist Miss Twemlow. (8pm – Admission 2/- (Balcony), 1/- and 6d (Limited).)
Concerts by the band included
1 Feb 1925 CONCERT for the British Legion Widow and Orphans Fund
21 Nov 1926 CONCERT for the British Legion Widow and Orphans Fund
11 Dec 1927 CONCERT for the British Legion Widow and Orphans Fund
11 Nov 1928 CONCERT for the British Legion Widow and Orphans Fund
24 Feb 1935 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Sandbach Nursing Home
27 Feb 1938 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Sandbach Nursing Home
26 Nov 1939 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Soldiers Comfort Fund
26 Apr 1942 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Sandbach Nursing Home
25 Mar 1945 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND
in aid of the Sandbach and District Nursing Association.
– Nursing Concert (Paid Gratis)
19 Oct 1947 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Sandbach Nursing Home (Paid Gratis)
6 Nov 1949 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND
30 Oct 1957 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND Conductor Rex Mortimer
25 Nov 1982 LAUNCH OF FODENS OTS BAND
After an informal meeting the band made a formal announcement about the
sponsorship deal with OTS at Sandbach Town Hall at which the band played for an
hour for Mr and Mrs Richard Carlton Tickell (OTS).
Following the signing the band joined its new sponsors at the Old Hall for a buffet
lunch.
15 Mar 2014 FODEN’S BAND “Ensemble” at SANDBACH TOWN HALL
23 Apr 2015 FODENS BAND CONCERT “Last Night of the Proms”
17 Sept 2015 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT at Sandbach Town Hall
21 Apr 2016 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT at Sandbach Town Hall
Fri 17 June 2016 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT at Sandbach Town Hall
To raise funds for the band after the fire at their rehearsal room destroyed
many artefacts and music.
Tues 27 Mar 2018 FODEN’S BAND HERITAGE CONCERT at Sandbach Town Hall.
First half of the concert will be music saved from the fire and played by the band
for the first time in concert having recorded the pieces for their Heritage Website.
Second half will be concert material.
Fri 18 Oct 2019 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT Bier Keller Night at Sandbach Town Hall
Sat 21 Dec 2019 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT The “Snowman” Live with film.
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In the 1930’s the Town Hall was the venue for an annual pantomime. I don’t know when the group started but it was organised by the local Parish Church to entertain the children of the area and like previous drama groups, they gave their profits to charity and the local churches.
Among the productions performed was, “Little Red Riding Hood”.
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SPITFIRE FUND IN SANDBACH
By 1943, Sandbach had set up a money raising fund for the town to purchase a Spitfire for the RAF to help in the war against Germany and to be able to defend Britain.
On the 10 April 1943, the Crewe Chronicle noted that the Brereton War Savings fund had joined the “Sandbach Wing’s for Victory Fund”.
This was not the only fundraiser for the war effort in the town as the Foden Motor Works had their own “Foden’s Spitfire Effort” (Crewe Chronicle 19 Oct 1940) and a local group raised money for local charities including the “Foden’s Spitfire Effort”, which it split its funds between in March 1941 (15 March 1941 Crewe Chronicle).
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24 April 1943
As part of the war effort and fundraising on the 24 April 1943, there was a “Grand Exhibition and Demonstration”, of Aircraft Equipment including a Dinghy, Mae West, Parachute Flare, Parachute, Flying Kit, Browning Gun and a Cannon.
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Councillors at the time were,.
CHAIRMAN Alfred Ernest Poole.
VICE CHAIRMAN James Poudlove
EAST WARD (End Date for current length of service)
James Buckley (1915)
Charles Wardle (1915)
George Boulton (1916)
Matt. Hassall Eardley (1916)
Edward Butler (1917)
Walter Lea (1917)
NORTH WARD
Alfred Ernest Poole (1915)
Arthur Buckley (1915)
George Newall (1916)
James Proudlove (1917)
George Wright (1917)
WEST WARD
Ralph Ruscoe (1915)
Alfred Price (1916)
Edward Holland (1917)
OFFICIALS
Clerk = Alfred Edward Stringer (3 Crewe Road)
Treasurer = John William Trigg (Manchester and Liverpool District Bank Ltd, High Town)
(From Kelly’s Directory 1914)
###############################################
3 Feb 1915
The Crewe Parliamentary Division Recruiting Committee applied to the Sandbach Urban District Council on the 21 Jan 1915 to hold a recruiting meeting on the 3rd Feb 1915 at the Town Hall (Free of Charge).
Sept 1915
A detachment of the 3/7th Territorial Battalion Cheshire Regiment under Major Taylor visited Congleton on the Monday in connection with a Recruiting Rally of the Western Command after marching from Macclesfield.
On the Tuesday morning (28 Sept 1915) they visited Sandbach and were given a “Grand Military Smoking Concert” in their honour at the Town Hall in the presence of the Mayor of the Town. There will also be a boxing competition and local personality Ex-Sergeant, now Pioneer Noah Kennerly, of the Cheshire Regiment depot, appeared in new patriotic sketches.
8 Dec 1915
On Wednesday the 8 December 1915 the Headmaster of Sandbach School, Sidney Wallace Finn MA was officially appointed “Attesting Officer” under Lord Derby’s Scheme to recruit soldiers in the area.
Dec 1915
Khaki Armlets were distributed to the men of Sandbach who had attested under Lord Derby’s Scheme in the Town Hall on Wednesday evening.
The Town Hall was full of those who waited their turn to receive the symbol of Patriotism.
The first wave of recruits under the Derby scheme were encouraged to join up in December 1915 and had until the 29th January to report to their unit.
If they needed more time before joining up, they had until the 30 December 1915 to lodge an appeal to be placed in a later group of recruits.
(Reprinted in Sandbach Chronicle 31 Dec 2015)
RECRUITMENT SCHEME BY LORD DERBY
Lord Derby was appointed British Minister of War between 1916 and 1918 and had been brought into the wartime Coalition Government in 1915, when he was given the job of being the public face on the issue of Conscription after he had proved his support in Liverpool during August 1914 when he encouraged the idea of the PALS BATTALIONS where men from a town could all serve together in one unit.
Asquith appointed Lord Derby as Director-General of Recruitment in 1915 and he unveiled what became known as the DERBY SCHEME which was a recruitment policy where young men could give their “Assent” to being called up if needed with Single men being called up first and the government promising to only call up Married Men last.
In the spring of 1915 enlistment averaged 100,000 men per month but this figure was dwindling and it was soon decided to raise the upper age limit in May 1915 from 38 to 40 years old. On the 15 July 1915 the Government passed the National Registration Act to discover how many men were between the age of 15 to 65 and who were eligible to be enlisted. The act, like the census of 1911 asked for occupations so the Government could decide who were needed on the home front and who could be asked to join up. By Mid-September 1915 the results showed that there were 5 million males of military age who were not in the forces or in “Starred” (or Protected, High or Scarce skill) Jobs.
On the 11 October 1915 (Edward George Villiers Stanley) Lord Derby’s Scheme (or officially the “Group Scheme”) started to recruit single men to join the war and men aged between 18 to 40 with events in public places to recruit those who wanted the chance to enlist voluntarily or attest (Sign up) with an obligation to be called up later with the last date of the scheme to sign up being the 15 December 1915.
Once signed up the volunteers were segregated into groups. Those who volunteered but wanted to defer service were put into “Class A” while those who wanted to join immediately were put into “Class B”. Class A men were paid a day’s army pay for the day they Attested and were given a grey armband (or Khaki Armlets) with a red crown on it to signify that they had volunteered and were officially transferred to the Section B Army Reserve before being sent home to await their call up. Those who were Called up were done so according to age groups from Single Men born in 1897 = Group 1 to those born in 1875 = Group 23 and Married Men born from 1897 = Group 24 to those born in 1875 = Group 46. They were then mobilised between (Group 1) the 28 Mar 1916 and (Group 46) the 13 June 1916.
(See also http://www.1914-1918.net/derbyscheme.html)
In some areas like Sandbach the scheme was popular, however it didn’t produce enough men to satisfy the demand with only 350,000 putting their names forward and so in January 1916 Conscription was introduced via the Military Service Act.
###############################################
18 Jan 1918
On Friday the 18th January 1918 the Children of Sandbach School were taken by their teachers to a lecture and picture show in the afternoon by Mr Mock at the Town Hall on “War in the Air”.
25 Oct 1918
On Wednesday afternoon (23rd October 1918) all the boys from the school and all other students from the town were taken to a Lantern Lecture at the Town Hall given by Mr Mock on the subject of “War on the Land”.
EXTRA INFO.
This would have been like a slide show with a narrative being given by the lecturer and possibly as it was a lantern show some of the glass slides may have had animated parts to them allowing a moving illustration to the lecture, rather like an early form of animation.
On the 11 November 1918 War officially ended at 11am with a cease fire.
###############################################
1 February 1925
On the 1 February 1925, Foden’s Motor Works Band held a concert at the Town Hall for the Sandbach Widows and Orphans fund. The concert was organised by Mr Jones and included conductor Fred Mortimer (His first concert in Sandbach) and the tunes ‘Cleopatra’ and ‘The Acrobat’ (Bob Knott Trombone Solo).
21 November 1926
The Foden Motor Works Band played Sacred Concert at the Sandbach Town Hall in aid of the Sandbach British Legion Widows and Orphans Fund on the 21 November 1926 with Fred Mortimer conducting and included soloist Ed Lovatt (Bass Baritone) of London, Manchester and Provincial concerts with accompanist Miss Twemlow. (8pm – Admission 2/- (Balcony), 1/- and 6d (Limited).)
Concerts by the band included
1 Feb 1925 CONCERT for the British Legion Widow and Orphans Fund
21 Nov 1926 CONCERT for the British Legion Widow and Orphans Fund
11 Dec 1927 CONCERT for the British Legion Widow and Orphans Fund
11 Nov 1928 CONCERT for the British Legion Widow and Orphans Fund
24 Feb 1935 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Sandbach Nursing Home
27 Feb 1938 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Sandbach Nursing Home
26 Nov 1939 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Soldiers Comfort Fund
26 Apr 1942 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Sandbach Nursing Home
25 Mar 1945 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND
in aid of the Sandbach and District Nursing Association.
– Nursing Concert (Paid Gratis)
19 Oct 1947 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND in aid of Sandbach Nursing Home (Paid Gratis)
6 Nov 1949 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND
30 Oct 1957 FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND Conductor Rex Mortimer
25 Nov 1982 LAUNCH OF FODENS OTS BAND
After an informal meeting the band made a formal announcement about the
sponsorship deal with OTS at Sandbach Town Hall at which the band played for an
hour for Mr and Mrs Richard Carlton Tickell (OTS).
Following the signing the band joined its new sponsors at the Old Hall for a buffet
lunch.
15 Mar 2014 FODEN’S BAND “Ensemble” at SANDBACH TOWN HALL
23 Apr 2015 FODENS BAND CONCERT “Last Night of the Proms”
17 Sept 2015 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT at Sandbach Town Hall
21 Apr 2016 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT at Sandbach Town Hall
Fri 17 June 2016 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT at Sandbach Town Hall
To raise funds for the band after the fire at their rehearsal room destroyed
many artefacts and music.
Tues 27 Mar 2018 FODEN’S BAND HERITAGE CONCERT at Sandbach Town Hall.
First half of the concert will be music saved from the fire and played by the band
for the first time in concert having recorded the pieces for their Heritage Website.
Second half will be concert material.
Fri 18 Oct 2019 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT Bier Keller Night at Sandbach Town Hall
Sat 21 Dec 2019 FODEN’S BAND CONCERT The “Snowman” Live with film.
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In the 1930’s the Town Hall was the venue for an annual pantomime. I don’t know when the group started but it was organised by the local Parish Church to entertain the children of the area and like previous drama groups, they gave their profits to charity and the local churches.
Among the productions performed was, “Little Red Riding Hood”.
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SPITFIRE FUND IN SANDBACH
By 1943, Sandbach had set up a money raising fund for the town to purchase a Spitfire for the RAF to help in the war against Germany and to be able to defend Britain.
On the 10 April 1943, the Crewe Chronicle noted that the Brereton War Savings fund had joined the “Sandbach Wing’s for Victory Fund”.
This was not the only fundraiser for the war effort in the town as the Foden Motor Works had their own “Foden’s Spitfire Effort” (Crewe Chronicle 19 Oct 1940) and a local group raised money for local charities including the “Foden’s Spitfire Effort”, which it split its funds between in March 1941 (15 March 1941 Crewe Chronicle).
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24 April 1943
As part of the war effort and fundraising on the 24 April 1943, there was a “Grand Exhibition and Demonstration”, of Aircraft Equipment including a Dinghy, Mae West, Parachute Flare, Parachute, Flying Kit, Browning Gun and a Cannon.
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SANDBACH AMATEUR DRAMATIC SOCIETY (2)
1946 The venue became the theatrical home of a new group of actors. The Sandbach Amateur Dramatic Society (SADS formed in 1945) held their shows at the Town Hall with their first production being on the 9-10 April 1946, “Without the Prince”. After many years of performing at the venue in 1975 they performed their last show before moving to their own stage at the Hope Street, Church Hall / School room, with Lady Dracula (9 - 11 October 1975 by David Campton).
In 1977 the Sandbach Players (Name changed in 1973) moved into the Hope Street School Room with the play “I’ll Get My Man”. In 1992 the group moved to Sandbach School and the play “Dry Rot” followed by a short season at Bradwall Village Hall in 2005 with An Inspector Calls which was then transferred to the Sandbach Town Hall on the 19 December 2005. The Players moved back into the Town Hall for the society’s final show on the 24 June 2006 which was “Proscenophobia” by Bettine Manktelow.
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Between the 15 June 1950 and the 21 June 1950, the local Co-operative Society based in Bold Street hosted “The Great Co-op Exhibition” in the Town Hall. It was opened by Mr L Cooke J.P. the local Director of the Co-operative Wholesale Society alongside Mr Sydney Bailey the President of the Sandbach Co-operative Society Ltd. The exhibition included C.W.S. products in the making, Free competitions, displays of goods for the home and to wear along with Model Furnished Rooms filled with Co-op products.
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17 Nov 1957 BELMONT CHOIR Annual Concert
With Guest Artist, Constance Shacklock (Messo-Soprano)
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25 Oct 1958 CATH JONES AND HER BAND (Dance) TICKETS 5/- 8pm start
The Sandbach Music Studio (Record Store) owner had her own band which played on a regular basis for dances from the 1940’s through to the 1980’s at various locations including a regular booking at the Town Hall in Sandbach which included the Christmas Eve Dance. Cath always held a New Year’s Eve Dance somewhere in the area. The band also played for a number of fundraising concerts both at the town hall and at other venues.
OTHER DATES
12 Oct 1967 CATH JONES AND HER BAND (Dance) TICKETS 6/-
4 Apr 1968 CATH JONES AND HER BAND (Dance) TICKETS 6/-
24 Dec 1968 CATH JONES AND HER BAND (Dance)
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The 1961 Annual Police Ball was held at Sandbach Town Hall with music provided by Ralph Cowdall with various policemen attending including PC Bailey, PC Barlow, PC Clarke, PC Jones and PC Wright.
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By the 1960’s the Beatles were topping the charts and every kid wanted to be in a pop band and on the 9 March 1963, one of those groups appeared at Sandbach Town Hall. “Noddy and the Toy Town Rockers” (Yorkshire Pop Band) appeared with another group called “Diamonds” (8pm to 11.30pm).
Just like the days of the ballroom dances there was a need for girls to attend the functions and for the boys to meet, fall in love with and marry. The same imbalance of a lack of girls was at the pop shows of the 50’s and 60’s, so a cheaper fee was charged for ladies to entice them into the shows.
TICKETS Guys 4/6
Gals 2/6
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16 November 1962
FODEN MOTOR WORKS DANCE
A dance run by the Foden Sports and Social Club (Apprentice Section) was held at the Town Hall from 8pm to 1am with Ralph Cowdall and his Band a popular dance band locally for many years. Tickets were 5/- in advance or 6/- on the night with refreshments at moderate charges.
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1946 The venue became the theatrical home of a new group of actors. The Sandbach Amateur Dramatic Society (SADS formed in 1945) held their shows at the Town Hall with their first production being on the 9-10 April 1946, “Without the Prince”. After many years of performing at the venue in 1975 they performed their last show before moving to their own stage at the Hope Street, Church Hall / School room, with Lady Dracula (9 - 11 October 1975 by David Campton).
In 1977 the Sandbach Players (Name changed in 1973) moved into the Hope Street School Room with the play “I’ll Get My Man”. In 1992 the group moved to Sandbach School and the play “Dry Rot” followed by a short season at Bradwall Village Hall in 2005 with An Inspector Calls which was then transferred to the Sandbach Town Hall on the 19 December 2005. The Players moved back into the Town Hall for the society’s final show on the 24 June 2006 which was “Proscenophobia” by Bettine Manktelow.
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Between the 15 June 1950 and the 21 June 1950, the local Co-operative Society based in Bold Street hosted “The Great Co-op Exhibition” in the Town Hall. It was opened by Mr L Cooke J.P. the local Director of the Co-operative Wholesale Society alongside Mr Sydney Bailey the President of the Sandbach Co-operative Society Ltd. The exhibition included C.W.S. products in the making, Free competitions, displays of goods for the home and to wear along with Model Furnished Rooms filled with Co-op products.
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17 Nov 1957 BELMONT CHOIR Annual Concert
With Guest Artist, Constance Shacklock (Messo-Soprano)
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25 Oct 1958 CATH JONES AND HER BAND (Dance) TICKETS 5/- 8pm start
The Sandbach Music Studio (Record Store) owner had her own band which played on a regular basis for dances from the 1940’s through to the 1980’s at various locations including a regular booking at the Town Hall in Sandbach which included the Christmas Eve Dance. Cath always held a New Year’s Eve Dance somewhere in the area. The band also played for a number of fundraising concerts both at the town hall and at other venues.
OTHER DATES
12 Oct 1967 CATH JONES AND HER BAND (Dance) TICKETS 6/-
4 Apr 1968 CATH JONES AND HER BAND (Dance) TICKETS 6/-
24 Dec 1968 CATH JONES AND HER BAND (Dance)
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The 1961 Annual Police Ball was held at Sandbach Town Hall with music provided by Ralph Cowdall with various policemen attending including PC Bailey, PC Barlow, PC Clarke, PC Jones and PC Wright.
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By the 1960’s the Beatles were topping the charts and every kid wanted to be in a pop band and on the 9 March 1963, one of those groups appeared at Sandbach Town Hall. “Noddy and the Toy Town Rockers” (Yorkshire Pop Band) appeared with another group called “Diamonds” (8pm to 11.30pm).
Just like the days of the ballroom dances there was a need for girls to attend the functions and for the boys to meet, fall in love with and marry. The same imbalance of a lack of girls was at the pop shows of the 50’s and 60’s, so a cheaper fee was charged for ladies to entice them into the shows.
TICKETS Guys 4/6
Gals 2/6
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16 November 1962
FODEN MOTOR WORKS DANCE
A dance run by the Foden Sports and Social Club (Apprentice Section) was held at the Town Hall from 8pm to 1am with Ralph Cowdall and his Band a popular dance band locally for many years. Tickets were 5/- in advance or 6/- on the night with refreshments at moderate charges.
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13 April 1963
On the 13 April 1963 the Town Hall staged “Jimmy Powell and the Piledrivers” (Decca Recording Stars / “Thank Your Lucky Stars” / Hit Record Sugar Baby.). Jimmy Powell (.b. 13 Oct 1942 .D. 13 May 2016) grew up in the West Heath area of Birmingham and in 1962 formed a Scottish band called “Jimmy Powell and the 5 Dimensions” which for a brief time was Rod Stewart’s first band.
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In 1964, there were calls for the Town Hall to be demolished as it was making a loss for the town.
In January 1964 the Sandbach Chronicle wrote “In the last few years nobody has been able to make a success of it, not even the bingo people, the all-in wrestlers, the boxing promoters or the council itself, by way of a Saturday night dance.” The popularity of the town hall was now lacking and even popular dates like New Year’s Eve were not being booked. Popular dances of the 1930’s and 1940’s were now on a downward spiral as having to have lessons beforehand and women only got to dance when a man asked them meant that less and less people could be bothered now that the dance bands were out and a new drum led combo or pop groups were in fashion where all you needed to do was move about a bit to the beat to make an impression on a young lady or even dance around your handbag to attract the man of your dreams. These new groups were still not approved by the elderly members of Sandbach Town Council and the thought of them appearing at the Town Hall was out of the question.
The Council had tried the ballroom as a banqueting hall but the distance from the downstairs kitchen to the hall often meant that the meals were cold on arrival and the strain on waitresses as they struggled up the stairs with plates of food, trying not to spill the gravy. One suggestion was to build a bridge from the Co-op building next door (Now Handy Households) and do the catering on the same level but nothing came of this idea.
Councillor R Warburton suggested that the building be modernised and let out to the public for free only incurring a £1,000 a year loss on the project. Councillor R Warburton suggested a figure of £3,000 should be spent on the building, putting in new toilets, a kitchen on the same floor as the banqueting hall, a bar, and a modern dance floor. This would be better than having to spend between £25,000 and £30,000 on a new building.
When asked by the Sandbach Chronicle what people would like to do with the Town Hall the majority said that it should be knocked down and the Council should walk away from it completely.
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In January 1966, Councillor Ernest Condliffe held his Chairman’s Ball at the Town Hall with music by Cath Jones (who owned the Music Studio / Record Shop on Congleton Road). So good was the dancing that a piece of 8-foot square plaster fell from the ceiling of the boardroom below, thankfully no-one was in the room at the time.
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The Crewe Chronicle of the 30 December 1971 wrote that a building designed by Sir Gilbert Scott was to be demolished with features of his works being preserved and improved.
It reads in small format that this was possibly the Town Hall (UPDATE - However the Town Hall was not designed by Sir Gilbert Scott but by Thomas Bower of Nantwich).
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8 September 1972
On the 8 September 1972 the town hall was host to a talk by Lady Isobel Barnet (“What’s My Line” and other Quiz Shows on the BBC) before about 200 people, for a fundraiser on behalf of the Sandbach Ladies Branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.
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In 1982 the hall was partly refurbished and also in 1986 when the building was completely refurbished.
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On the 13 April 1963 the Town Hall staged “Jimmy Powell and the Piledrivers” (Decca Recording Stars / “Thank Your Lucky Stars” / Hit Record Sugar Baby.). Jimmy Powell (.b. 13 Oct 1942 .D. 13 May 2016) grew up in the West Heath area of Birmingham and in 1962 formed a Scottish band called “Jimmy Powell and the 5 Dimensions” which for a brief time was Rod Stewart’s first band.
##########################################################
In 1964, there were calls for the Town Hall to be demolished as it was making a loss for the town.
In January 1964 the Sandbach Chronicle wrote “In the last few years nobody has been able to make a success of it, not even the bingo people, the all-in wrestlers, the boxing promoters or the council itself, by way of a Saturday night dance.” The popularity of the town hall was now lacking and even popular dates like New Year’s Eve were not being booked. Popular dances of the 1930’s and 1940’s were now on a downward spiral as having to have lessons beforehand and women only got to dance when a man asked them meant that less and less people could be bothered now that the dance bands were out and a new drum led combo or pop groups were in fashion where all you needed to do was move about a bit to the beat to make an impression on a young lady or even dance around your handbag to attract the man of your dreams. These new groups were still not approved by the elderly members of Sandbach Town Council and the thought of them appearing at the Town Hall was out of the question.
The Council had tried the ballroom as a banqueting hall but the distance from the downstairs kitchen to the hall often meant that the meals were cold on arrival and the strain on waitresses as they struggled up the stairs with plates of food, trying not to spill the gravy. One suggestion was to build a bridge from the Co-op building next door (Now Handy Households) and do the catering on the same level but nothing came of this idea.
Councillor R Warburton suggested that the building be modernised and let out to the public for free only incurring a £1,000 a year loss on the project. Councillor R Warburton suggested a figure of £3,000 should be spent on the building, putting in new toilets, a kitchen on the same floor as the banqueting hall, a bar, and a modern dance floor. This would be better than having to spend between £25,000 and £30,000 on a new building.
When asked by the Sandbach Chronicle what people would like to do with the Town Hall the majority said that it should be knocked down and the Council should walk away from it completely.
###############################################
In January 1966, Councillor Ernest Condliffe held his Chairman’s Ball at the Town Hall with music by Cath Jones (who owned the Music Studio / Record Shop on Congleton Road). So good was the dancing that a piece of 8-foot square plaster fell from the ceiling of the boardroom below, thankfully no-one was in the room at the time.
###############################################
The Crewe Chronicle of the 30 December 1971 wrote that a building designed by Sir Gilbert Scott was to be demolished with features of his works being preserved and improved.
It reads in small format that this was possibly the Town Hall (UPDATE - However the Town Hall was not designed by Sir Gilbert Scott but by Thomas Bower of Nantwich).
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8 September 1972
On the 8 September 1972 the town hall was host to a talk by Lady Isobel Barnet (“What’s My Line” and other Quiz Shows on the BBC) before about 200 people, for a fundraiser on behalf of the Sandbach Ladies Branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.
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In 1982 the hall was partly refurbished and also in 1986 when the building was completely refurbished.
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SANDBACH TODAY EVENT
Started in 1997, the Sandbach Today event was first held at the Town Hall by Congleton Borough's Arts officer Carol McGregor and Cllr Dorothy Flint to promote local organisations with an exhibition of many of the societies in Sandbach.
The second year of the event was also at the Town Hall with an exhibition in January.
However, with various changes in local government and the formation of the Sandbach Partnership, the Partnership took over running the event along with a committee of various volunteers who help to organise the annual event as it has become a major calendar date for networking between organisations, recruiting new members as well as publicising what is going on in the town.
The event moved to St Mary’s Church Hall after the price of the hall had become too much for the event with about twenty-three organisations taking part.
In 2007, Dot Flint one of the organisers of the event wrote, “I had only intended to do this as a one off, but I am pleased to have been a part of it and seen how it has grown over the past 10 years”. Twenty-two years on the event has seen a number of changes over that time period and many of those original groups in the Town Hall meeting are no longer active in Sandbach but have been replaced by new organisations including the U3A (Formed in 2003), the Rotary Club of Saxon Crosses (2003) and the “Friends” groups (Sandbach Park 2010). Established organisations from that 1997 exhibition were continuing to support the town and the event including the Sandbach Photographic Society (Formed in 1979) and the Sandbach History Society (Formed in 1976) who have not missed any of the Sandbach Today Events.
1997 =
1998 = Jan 1998 (Organised by Congleton Borough Arts)
1999 = 26 November 1999 (Organised by Congleton Borough Arts)
2000 =
2001 =
2002 = Wesley Centre (Organised by Congleton Borough Arts)
2003 = (Sandbach Partnership)
2004 = 18 September 2004 (Organised by Sandbach Partnership)
2005 =
2006 = 30 September 2006 at Sandbach Town Hall
2007 = 29 September 2007 at Sandbach Town Hall (Daytime)
(Organised by Congleton Borough Arts and Sandbach Partnership)
29 September 2007 Celebration event at Town Hall (Evening)
2008 = @@ September 2008 at Sandbach Town Hall.
2009 = 19 September 2009 at Sandbach Town Hall 10am to 2pm.
2010 = 18 September 2010 at Sandbach Town Hall 10am to 2pm. (Opened by Fiona Bruce)
2011 = 17 September 2011 at Sandbach Town Hall 10am to 2pm.
Last Event at the Sandbach Town Hall before it moved to St Mary’s.
2012 = 15 September 2012 at St Mary’s Church Hall between 9.30am and 1.00pm.
2013 = 7 September 2013 at St Mary’s Church Hall between 9.30am and 1.30pm
along with Youth Organisations on the Market Square.
2014 = 20 September 2014 at St Mary’s Church Hall and Market Square.
2015 = 19 September 2015 at St Mary’s Church Hall and Market Square.
2016 = 17 September 2016 at St Mary’s Church Hall and Market Square.
2017 = 16 September 2017 at St Mary’s Church Hall.
2018 = 15 September 2018 at St Mary’s Church Hall.
2019 = 21 September 2019 at St Mary’s Church Hall.
2020 = Cancelled due to Covid 19
SANDBACH PARTNERSHIP
The Partnership has been involved with many aspects of the town from helping to set up groups and to assist with running events including over the years including the Sandbach Light Switch on, Sandbach Today, Halloween event, events in the park including “Play in the Park” and Health and wellbeing fairs in Sandbach.
Formed in 2003 when funding became available from a fund for 16 towns in the North West. The Market Town Initiative Fund was aimed at supporting Market Town’s including Sandbach to help with regeneration.
In those early years a £1.8 million donation helped to build the Sandbach Enterprise Centre, The regeneration of the Market Square and a shop front grant initiative to encourage the improvement of the look of the buildings to bring them in line with the rest of the town.
By 2007 David McGifford was the Enterprise Manager (Enterprise Center) and Julie Walker helped to organise events including the Sandbach Today event.
In 2007 the Sandbach Parnership joined with the Congleton Borough Council and Sandbach Town Council to form a “Sandbach Community Pride” organisation to enter the National Civic Pride competition.
In 2007 they took over the Market Square and replaced the surface along with arranging an archilogical dig to find out more of its history. Replacement of the cobbles took place in August 2008 with plans to finish the project at the end of March 2009. On the 11 July 2009 a launch event was held on the Market Sqaure to celebrate the improvements with activities from local groups and performances from local entertainers.
In 2008 the Parnership set about some projects in Sandbach Park and continued to support the Friends of Sandbach Park as well as funding new pathways and disabled access.
2008 also had funding for new street furniture in the town alongside new litterbins, benches, signposts and noticeboards to tell people of events. The year also had funding for 100 new hanging baskets and eleven continental planters to be distributed around the town.
In 2009 a Historic Trail leaflet was funded by the partnership.
In 2010 the Partnership was involved with a project to develop a comprehensive Town Action Plan for the future development of the town into 2020. Along with the Town Council they would consult on various aspects including cycle lanes and youth projects.
2010 the Friends of Sandbach Park was formed with David Bone a member of the Sandbach Parnership co-orinating the group before its first meeting. (Possibly Nov / Dec 2010)
In May 2010 a fire in the park had caused extensive damage to play equipment with a working group in October 2010 looking at various options to replace damaged items.
In 2007 there was a “Light up a Life” event at the Community Garden on Scotch Common organised by the Sandbach Support Group for St Luke’s Hospice which continues alongside the “Light Switch on event. The 4 December 2009, event included a short service at St John’s Sandbach Heath. This idea was taken a step further by the Partnership with a “Tree of Light Festival”.
On the 8 December 2011 the first Tree of Lights Ceremony took place at Sandbach Cemetery with stars to remember those who have passed away available from the Library, Westfields Council offices, the Sandbach Town Council and the Sandbach Partnership in the Enterprise Centre. Town Mayor Dennis Robinson (and Town Crier) led the service with readings and music from the Sandbach Ladies Choir and St John’s School.
On the 26 October 2013 the Partnership staged its first Halloween Event on the Market Square between 4pm and 7pm with a fancy dress competition and various spooky stalls.
In 2017 the Partnership opened a phone box in the Park which they had moved from Platt Avenue after Stewart Green wrote an article for the Sandbach Chronicle about how it should be saved for the people of the town.
In September 2020 Dot Flint announced that she was standing down as Chairman of the Sandbach Partnership a role she has been at the heart of for 19 years.
In 1994 Dot stood for election to the Sandbach Town Council and Congleton Borough Councils and became councillors for both organisations. Her husband Fred was Chief Executive of Congleton Borough Council. In 1998 Dot Flint became Chairman of Sandbach Town Council (Mayoral Role) and it was then that she started the Sandbach Today event under the funding banner of Congleton Borough Council.
On the 24th November 2020 (Tuesday at 7pm in the Masonic Hall) Dot handed over the role at the AGM.
GROUPS STARTED WITH THE HELP OF THE PARTNERSHIP
Sandbach Fire Cadets
Clean Team
Friends of Sandbach Park
Sandbach Dementia Group
Grassroots Disability
PARTNERSHIP EVENTS
27 Oct 2012 Halloween Event
6 Dec 2012 Tree of Light Ceremony
26 Oct 2013 Halloween Event
5 Dec 2013 Tree of Light Ceremony
1 Nov 2014 Halloween Event / Spooky Saturday
4 Dec 2014 Tree of Light Ceremony
31 Oct 2015 Halloween Event
3 Dec 2015 Tree of Light Ceremony
29 Oct 2016 Halloween Event / Spooky Fancy Dress
8 Dec 2016 Tree of Light Ceremony
28 Oct 2017 Halloween Event / Spooky Spectacular
7 Dec 2017 Tree of Light Ceremony
27 Oct 2018 Halloween Event / Spooky Saturday
6 Dec 2018 Tree of Light Ceremony
26 Oct 2019 Halloween Event / Spooky Saturday. Cancelled at the last minute due to bad weather.
5 Dec 2019 Tree of Light Ceremony
2020 Events Cancelled due to Coronavirus.
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In 2000, Prue Bowles organised a “Festival of Flowers” for the local churches (Helped by the Elworth Flower Club), but felt that many people who would like to attend were unable to do so as they couldn’t climb the stairs. Cllr David Lloyd-Griffiths pointed out that plans had been drawn up earlier for a lift but had been dropped.
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In 2002 a third refurbishment was undertaken and in 2013 alterations were again made to the hall with a retractable stage, new sound system and new bar area being added. The new look Town Hall opened officially on the 19 February 2014.
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Foden’s Band are not the only Brass Band to play regularly at Sandbach Town Hall. The Roberts Bakery Band has held an annual Christmas concert at the venue for many years to raise funds for themselves. (Dates Archived include 21 Dec 2012 / 16 Dec 2016 / 22 Dec 2017 / 15 Dec 2018)
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COMEDY CLUB
In 2012 the town hall became the venue for a touring comedy club. Popular in local theatre bars at the Lyceum (Crewe) and Regent Theatre (Hanley) the companies were keen to expand and held evenings at local town halls including the Nantwich Civic Hall.
On the 27 October 2012 the first “Comedy Night” in Sandbach included comedians Justin Moorhouse, Noel James, Chris Martin, with MC for the Night John Warburton. Some of the acts performed at Sandbach before they became famous and occasionally a star name (At the Time) was on the bill including on the 7 December 2012, as MC for the Night was Howard Read who at the time had his own children’s TV programme and appeared at the 2007 Royal Variety Performance with his act ‘Big Howard Little Howard’ (CBBC).
Organisers included “Comedy Hotspots Team” and a concert in aid of the Sandbach Rugby Club.
COMEDIANS WHO HAVE TAKEN PART
Clinton Baptiste,
Alistair Barrie,
Ninia Benjamin (BBC 3’s 3 Non-Blondes)
Mitch Benn (The Now Show BBC Radio 4),
Andrew Bird,
Marcus Birdman,
Bethany Black,
Eddie Brimson,
Maff Brown,
Barry Castagnola,
Daliso Chaponda,
James Cook,
Tom Deacon,
Kevin Dewsbury,
Carl Donnelly,
Harriet Dyer,
Hayley Ellis,
Angelos Epithmiou (Never Mind the Buzzcocks),
Mick Ferris,
Steve Harris,
Sally Ann Hayward,
Tez Ilyas (Tez O Clock Show on Channel 4),
Noel James,
Leo Kerse,
Gerry Kyei,
Rudi Lickwood
Gary Little,
Dave Longley,
Chris Martin,
Milo McCabe as Troy Hawke,
Danny McLoughin,
Garrett Millerick,
Justin Moorhouse,
Susan Murray,
Cerys Nelmes,
Ben Norris,
Rory O’Hanlon,
Sully O’Sullivan,
Nick Page (2017 Britain’s Got Talent Semi Finalist),
Lauren Pattison,
Philbertol,
Ste Porter,
The Raymond and Mr Timpkins Revue
Howard Read (Big Howard Little Howard)
Christine Reilly,
Rob Rouse,
Adam Rowe,
Joe Rowntree,
Steve Royle,
Silky,
Harry Stachini,
Tom Stade Totally Rocks (7 June 2013 Solo Show)
Andrew Stanley,
Chris Stokes,
Jim Tavare,
John Warburton.
Joseph Wilson,
Rich Wilson,
Simon Wozniak.
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COMMUNITY CINEMA
In 2012 the Sandbach Community Cinema started with the aim of bringing a cinema back to Sandbach by showing its films in the Town Hall on the second Tuesday of the Month.
The first film was shown on the 18 September 2012 and was “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”
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4 May 2013
MAYOR’S INVESTITURE at Town Hall
The Mayor changed from Carolyn Lowe to Mike Benson.
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27 January 2014
HOLOCAUST SERVICE AT THE TOWN HALL
On the 27 January 2014 Cheshire East Council held a Holocaust Service at Sandbach Town Hall. It was the idea of the Leader of Cheshire East, Michael Jones who invited many Councillors from the area to come along to Sandbach Town Hall for a service of remembrance along with members of the public. Cheshire East Mayor Dorothy Flude opened the proceedings followed by a reading from Sandbach Town Mayor Mike Benson, who also introduced violin player Eloise Smith from Congleton High School to play a piece from the John Williams score for “Schindlers List”. Mike had seen Eloise at a recent Sandbach Concert series and contacted her to see if she would be willing to take part in the event.
Michael Jones then invited those present to light candles in remembrance of all those past and present that have been on the receiving end of the sort of genocide seen in Germany during the 2nd world war and other conflicts. He also hoped that it would never happen again but felt this may be a wish that would not be granted. This was the first of what he hoped would be an annual event staged by Cheshire East Council.
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19 February 2014
REFURBISHMENT OF MAIN HALL
The Town Hall in Sandbach was finally opened on Wednesday the 19 February 2014, after a long period of closure for refurbishments. The ceremony then offered a chance for the public and Civic Leaders from Sandbach, Alsager, Cheshire East and the surrounding area to have a look at the updated facilities that any civic hall would be proud of. With more modern rooms the Town Hall now caters for any function with sound, lighting and projection units in the various rooms available for hire.
The Opening what introduced by a wonderful poem performed by the Town’s Town Crier Denis Robinson about the new facilities in the building followed by Councillor Carolyn Lowe the Council’s liaison officer for the project who thanked the various people involved in the project including the many people of the town who expressed an opinion as to what they wanted within the new look facility Finally Mayor Mike Benson gave a historic speech about the building and statistics as to how the cost of refurbishment was better than having to rebuild the structure along with a comparison with its original cost in 1889 when the first foundation stoke was laid.
The ribbon was finally cut for the public to enter the building with the Mayor opening the door to what they hope will be a well-used building. A local resident who had been using the building since 1947 was impressed with the new facilities and hoped that the price would not deter people from using it.
From what I have seen, the facilities are a lot more user friendly catering for the needs of the 21st Century and I hope that the building will last another 125 years.
Improvements included a new look bar area above the main floor with a modern look frontage.
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22 February 2014
2014 TUDOR TIMES AT THE TOWN HALL
The Town Hall in Sandbach went back in time on the 22 February 2014, to the Tudor period for a fundraiser in aid of the Mayor’s Charity when it held a Banquet, Tudor fashion show and Musical entertainment from Piva a 1500’s style group of musicians who proved that good music is never out of date and impressed the audience so much so that I have never seen an unknown group of musician praised so much at the end of a performance like they were. With authentic instruments made by members of the group including an English set of bagpipes they provided authentic music that complimented the fashion show provided by Jenny Unsworth. Jenny who also helped organise the event not only gave an informative commentary on each of the costumes from the various decades of the Tudor period but also made each of them herself. Her costumes have been used at various events for the National Trust and she tries to keep them as authentic as possible by looking at paintings from the period to get the details right. Friends, neighbours and relatives all joined her as models to provide the perfect Tudor fashion show. Mayor, Mike Benson and his family were also clothed by Jenny in Tudor costumes and Dot Flint provided a meal based on some of the food eaten by the people of the time with table decorations and banners to change the ballroom at the town hall into a banqueting hall fit for a Tudor King and Queen. The whole event raised over £500 for the Mayor’s Charity with the Mayor thanking everyone who contributed to the appeal with special praise going to Dot Flint and Jenny Unsworth without whom it would not have worked so well.
The next event for the Mayor’s Charity was an Afternoon Cream Tea at the Town Hall on the 22 March between 3pm to 5.30pm.
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22 March 2014
CREAM TEA AT THE TOWN HALL
The Cream Tea Event at Sandbach Town Hall on Saturday 22 March was a successful event to raise funds for the Mayor’s Charity Fund which this year goes to the Air Ambulance and Shipton Explorer Scouts (Sandbach). The event raise over £750 for the Charity and over 100 people attended the afternoon event with cakes provided by Dot Flint, Gill Merry, Gail Wait, Mary Moran, Sheila Higgins and Kathie Benson. There was also music provided by young musicians who had been involved with the Sandbach Concert Series. Musicians at the event were Billy Proctor (Classical Guitar from Congleton High School); Jamie Gallagher (Clarinet from Haslington Primary School); Adam Pointon (Keyboard from Mablins Lane Primary School Crewe); Ellen Pointon (Saxophone and Guitar from Sandbach High School); Clare Madely (Flute from South Cheshire College) and a Flute Trio of William Roberts, Daniel Turnbull and Joe Tarry.
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11 April 2014
MAYOR’S BALL
Mayor Mike Benson and his consort Mrs Kathie Benson were hosts at the annual Mayor’s Ball in the Town Hall on Friday the 11 April. With dignitaries from around Cheshire and invited guests, the event was the last chance to raise funds for this year’s Mayoral Charities the North West Air Ambulance and the Shipton Explorer Scout Unit (Based in Sandbach).
During the evening the diners and dancers enjoyed local musicians “Out of the Blues” and music for dancing was provided by “Dance Bespoke”.
A fine menu was provided in a three course meal including homemade carrot and coriander soup followed by Scottish Salmon in white wine sauce and for desert a raspberry cheesecake.
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3 May 2014
MAYOR MAKING AT TOWN HALL
Sandbach appointed its new Mayor at an open AGM of Sandbach Town Council on Sunday the 18 May 2014 when members of the public were allowed to attend to see Elsie Alcock appointed for the first time as Mayor of the Town. She has been the Chairman of the Council in 2002-3 and 2009 -10 with her new Deputy Mayor being Gill Merry who along with Elsie has made a large contribution to the area as part of many groups over the years.
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29 June 2014
FREEDOM OF SANDBACH AWARDED TO MERCIAN REGIMENT
On Armed Forces Day the 26 June 2014 the Mercian Regiment was awarded the Freedom of Sandbach Town by Sandbach Town Council in a stunning ceremony in the town. Thousands of people turned out to see the Royal British Legion, local Military and Scouting Groups along with troops from the (1 Mercian) First Battalion of the Mercian Regiment who represented the 3 Battalions of the Mercian’s who have just been renamed after the Counties they now represent.
Second in Command, Major Rob Prentice from the regiment in his early life grew up in the town of Sandbach, going to St Winifred’s Church and he was also educated at Elworth Primary School. He along with many local soldiers from Crewe and Congleton brought with them their families to see them marching through the town from Westfield’s to the Market Square and then onto a service at St Mary’s before the Regiment made use of their Freedom by marching from the Church to Scotch Common and round the car park to outside the Town Hall car park ready for a reception at the Town Hall to celebrate the occasion.
Organised by the British Legion from an idea suggested by Mrs Marjorie Newton the event was a great success as the 6th Armed Forces day marched through Sandbach with the music of the Silk Band from Macclesfield leading the procession and who played the Regimental March on the square as well as providing some of the music in the church along with Kevin Birch the organist at St Mary’s. The Revd. Thomas Shepherd led the service with readings from to Lt Col Mark Ellwood of the First Mercian, the High Sheriff of Cheshire Mrs Susan Sellers, Regimental Sergeant-Major WOI Richard Page and Mrs Marjorie Newton the Chairman of the Sandbach Branch of the Royal British Legion.
On the Market Square Sandbach Town Council Mayor Elsie Alcock had handed over the freedom to Lt Col Mark Ellwood MBE of the regiment with the High Sheriff of Cheshire, Mrs Susan Sellers, MP Fiona Bruce and representatives of the Royal British Legion in attendance.
The event then moved to the Town Hall for a reception.
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In the 1930’s the Town Hall had staged a Pantomime by local groups. On Monday the 29 December 2014, Talegate Theatre came to town with the first of a number of Pantomimes with “CINDERELLA” being the first of these productions.
PANTO
Mon 29 Dec 2014 “CINDERELLA”
Mon 28 Dec 2015 “JACK AND THE BEANSTALK”
Thurs 29 Dec 2016 “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST”
Thurs 28 Dec 2017 “DICK WHITTINGTON”
Thurs 27 Dec 2018 “SLEEPING BEAUTY”.
Fri 27 Dec 2019 “ALADDIN”.
2020 Cancelled due to Coronavirus.
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18 April 2015
YOUNG MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR
On the Saturday of the Sandbach Transport Festival (18th April 2015) there was an added bonus. A show of musical excellence that rivalled the entertainment provided on the square. It was the first “Young Musician of the Year” competition held by the Sandbach Concert Series organisers who this year have decided to hold an event to showcase local talent of all ages with ten players in the Senior Section and five in the Junior Section. All the players have featured in the Concert Series during the year and have come from local schools to compete for prizes which were judged by professional musicians Sophie Rosa and Sally Wigan who like the competitors have featured in the concerts at St Mary’s Church Hall.
Audiences were amazed at the high standard of performance and it was a difficult decision that the judges had to make with prizes being awarded to Billy Proctor on Guitar who came third with a £25 prize, Matthew Brett who was second on percussion winning £50 and the overall winner in first place was Alex Flanders on Trumpet who picked up £100 and the title of the first Sandbach Young Musician of the Year.
There was also a special prize donated by international conductor Bramwell Tovey who on the 25 January 2015 had given an interview to John Barber of Fodens Band as a special event for the Concert Series which is now available to view on the Brass Band website ‘4 bars rest’. When he heard about the competition he decided to donate his fee for the January event to provide a special prize for the player who in the eyes of the judges was of special merit. The first award was given to Richard Rhodes who played the Bass Tuba.
The prizes were handed out by Sandbach Transport Festival Organisers and Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Sandbach, Elsie and Graham Alcock along with MP Fiona Bruce.
This became an annual event only missing 2020 when Covid 19 cancelled all events in the town.
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22 July 2015
SMART MOTORWAY IN SANDBACH EXHIBITION
On Wednesday the 22 July 2015, Highways England (The old Highways Agency) hosted an exhibition at Sandbach Town Hall to show the proposed alterations to the M6 between junctions 16 and 19 with a new ‘smart Motorway” scheme.
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3 October 2015
TEA WITH THE MAYOR
Started three years ago the annual Cream Tea with the Mayor event has been a great success raising funds for the Mayor’s Charity and this year is no exception. Gill Merry the Town's Mayor held her event in Sandbach Town Hall on the 3 October with many people from the local community coming along to partake in the scones, carrot cake, cream cakes and tea served by a number of volunteers and Councillors including Carolyn Lowe and on the door Mike Benson.
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16 October 2015
UNBORN ACTS AT TOWN HALL
The idea of Richard Husdan the new conference and events manager at Sandbach Town Hall, “Unborn” is a chance for new bands and singers to be seen by a wider audience and in the future hopefully some talent scouts are in the audience to discover them. On Friday the 16 October 2015 the first event in town hall took place with help from John Barber (Love Music Trust and Sandbach School) and Sandbach School who provided the bands for the evening. Eric Ball played some of his own songs plus cover versions while Ollie and Maliek filled in the middle slot plus joining other friends to play in the band Remedies who ended the evening with a loud ‘set” of music including new tunes and favourite covers.
Richard had tried the event out when he was working at the Corn Hall in the Cotswolds with great success and asked Sandbach Town Council if they would like to run a similar event in the Town. Keen to help local people the Council agreed to allow him to run the event at the town hall with minimum cost and gaining what expenses were spent back by charging £4 for a ticket to see the bands.
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27 January 2016
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY ON BBC RADIO STOKE
Cheshire East has celebrated Holocaust Memorial Day since 2013. On the 27 January 2016, Cheshire East Council invited members of the public to attend the event. ###############################################
9- 14 May 2016
SANDBACH ARTS FESTIVAL
In 2016, between the 9th and 14th May Sandbach Town Hall was busy with an event that we hadn’t seen in the town for a number of years.
Back in 1969, Sandbach had its first advertised “Art’s Festival” sometime during March or April. By 1992 when the next Festival was organised by “Balcony Arts” it featured celebrity names Tom Robinson, Dave Gorman and Manchester Camerata during the 3 days of the event and in 1993 Lindisfarne and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra provided the entertainment along with local artists followed in 1996 by performances by The Manfreds, Fairport Convention (Acoustic), Mark Lamarr (Comedian / TV Presenter), Nigel Planer (Young Ones), George Melly with John Chilton’s Feetwalmers, John Shuttleworth, Snowy White (Singer) and Circle Sensible all taking part.
In 2016, Richard Husdan the Conference and Events Manager at Sandbach Town Hall put together a line-up of different events over the week to celebrate, “Sandbach Arts Week”. The week started with an “Authors and Awards” event which was a co-production with Sandbach Library. Five writers performed at the Town Hall on the Monday with Catherine Green (Vampire Romance), Gill Hoffs (Writer and Broadcaster), Charles Heathcote (“Our Doris” Books), Margaret Holdbrook (Poet and Writer) and Elizabeth Morgan (Erotic Romances by local writer whose real name is Laura Surgenor), talking to about 25 readers who chatted to the authors at the event and afterwards when they sold and signed their books.
On Tuesday 120 people attended a showing of the film, “The Danish Girl” which was put on with the help of the Sandbach Community Cinema group and was very different from the usual popular films that they stage at the Town Hall each month, with a few of the viewers slightly offended by some of the content of the film.
On the Wednesday there was a “Baby Sensory event” and the following day 70 people attended an event by the Street Dance Academy as they premiered their production of “Borough 10 the Revolution”, before they took it to London.
The week ended on the Saturday was the “Little Cheshire Fair”, a vintage craft event with over 400 people coming through the door of the Town Hall.
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3 July 2016
DENNIS ROBINSON GIVEN FREEDOM OF SANDBACH
Dennis Robinson has received the greatest honour a town can give to one of its Citizens “The Freedom of Sandbach” for his many years of contributions to the life of this Market Town and in particular for his work as Town Crier.
The original competition to find a Town Crier for Sandbach took place in the Market Square in April 1978 some 150 years since the town had a Town Crier. Organised by Councillor’s Bob Holmes (Sandbach Town Council) and Mrs Eileen Henshall (Congleton Borough Council) the competition was won by 45 year old Don Burgess a wages boss at Fodens Motor Works Ltd. However, he was unable to commit to the job and soon it fell upon neighbouring Crier from Crewe Tom Clarkson to officiate at various events depending on his commitments in his home town.
In 1983 Dennis Robinson was asked to take on the role and so the job was passed to him by Lawrence Yarwood (Mayor) with Crewe Town Crier Tom Clarkson in attendance. Since then he has never refused to do a “Shout” to publicise an event in the town even when he was Mayor of Sandbach he continued to combine the two roles. It is because of his commitment to the Town and the immense pleasure he has bestowed upon the people of Sandbach in this role that he was given the “Freedom of Sandbach” at a ceremony on the 3 July 2016 which was part of the Civic Parade and Service. Carolyn Lowe led the tributes to Dennis with a look back at his life in Sandbach.
From the 1980’s Dennis was a keen member of the Christmas Lights and Transport Festival Committees. Ruth Robinson, his late wife supported Dennis in his role and during the Transport Festival helped him arrange the Town Criers Competition as well as providing the food for the participants over the weekend.
He has also been a trustee of the Sandbach Literary Institute and continues to serve on the board of the Alms Houses. He is a keen member of the Sandbach Heath Methodist Church congregation and has used his tradesman’s skills to maintain the fabric of the building as well as helping to raise funds and has also run the Sunday School. Carolyn Lowe said “Dennis was an extremely worthy recipient of the Freedom of Sandbach” and then presented him with a series of pictures in a frame celebrating his life as the Town Crier with one picture of him in his Red Coat another in his new Green Coat and the middle picture is of him becoming Crier in 1983. Bill Scragg a former Councillor and colleague of Dennis’s was then called upon to say a few words. He started by saying Carolyn had stolen his thunder as she had mentioned a lot of what he was going to say but was then able to add other stories about his friend Dennis.
“Dennis has been up and down the country representing Sandbach in various Town Crier Competitions and has even been to the South of France to represent Manchester in their Olympic Bid. Bill then went on to talk about the Sandbach Heath Christmas party (At the Methodist Church) which was something to behold as you were co-opted into doing various songs including ‘Old Tom Cobley and All’ as part of the entertainment”.
Mayor of Sandbach, Keith Haines then officially handed Dennis the scroll for the Freedom of Sandbach and congratulated him on the award to the sound of applause.
Dennis then made a speech, thanking Keith for allowing him to “share the event at Sandbach Town Hall” which held so many memories. He was now standing on this new floor which then reminded Dennis of the previous one when he stood on the old floor having paid 2/6 to get in for the Saturday Dance. Born in the cottage next to the Cricketers Arms it was at the age of 18 months that he and his parents moved back to Sandbach Heath where the Heathcote and Robinson family were.
Devout Christians the family went to Church each week at which Mr William Street was also a member of the Sandbach Heath congregation. It was he who built the Picture Palace in the town as well as being the Sunday School superintendent when Dennis was a child. Mr Street was an elderly gentleman by the time Dennis knew him and had a beard. Dennis’s father was an apprentice with Mr Street when they built the Cinema and when they were knocking it down he wasn’t too well and asked Dennis (His son) if he could get a brick from the demolished building to remind his of what he and Mr Street had built for the town.
Dennis then went on to talk about what the Freedom of Sandbach entitled him to do. Drive Sheep or Geese through the Town and also banging a drum while doing this. He recalled that he had one of the original Foden’s Band Drums with only one side with a skin on it and thought it would be a good idea to use this when he went through the town with his sheep (Loaned by a local farmer). He then picked up on what Bill Scragg had said about the Christmas party at which Dennis was always the first to be shoved out with his big drum which he used to beat out the time for pianist Betty Street before the rest of the company joined them on stage for a song or two.
Carolyn then made the toast to Dennis Robinson followed by a wonderful buffet and many people congratulating him on this achievement.
A feature in the Council’s magazine highlighted some of the events Dennis has been involved with.
In 1987 Dennis Robinson became the National Champion at Hastings and also won First Prize at the competition in Clitheroe. In May 1993 Dennis was asked by City Crier Doug Brittain to represent Manchester in Monte Carlo for their Olympic Bid as the City also wanted their Crier in Paris to promote their bid at the same time and he was unable to do both jobs. Within 30 minutes Dennis was packed and headed towards Manchester Airport where he boarded a flight to the South of France along with a number of Celebrities including Bobby Charlton and soon Dennis struck up a conversation with his wife Norma. Celebrity encounters continued in the four-day event with an event at a Sporting club at which Shirley Bassey sang and he was seated on the neighbouring table to Princess Anne at a banquet.
In 1999 Dennis won the Shield at Newquay followed in 2002 by wining the Cup and Shield at Llandinrod Wells and in 2003 he was the 3rd Best Dressed Crier in the World Championships.
In 2015 Dennis was seen in Sandbach in a new Green uniform which had been specially made for him and was a change from the usual red uniforms he had worn since taking office.
With these awards and his time on Sandbach Town Council as well as many other committees Dennis Robinson was justly given the “Freedom of Sandbach” on the 3 July 2016.
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Started in 1997, the Sandbach Today event was first held at the Town Hall by Congleton Borough's Arts officer Carol McGregor and Cllr Dorothy Flint to promote local organisations with an exhibition of many of the societies in Sandbach.
The second year of the event was also at the Town Hall with an exhibition in January.
However, with various changes in local government and the formation of the Sandbach Partnership, the Partnership took over running the event along with a committee of various volunteers who help to organise the annual event as it has become a major calendar date for networking between organisations, recruiting new members as well as publicising what is going on in the town.
The event moved to St Mary’s Church Hall after the price of the hall had become too much for the event with about twenty-three organisations taking part.
In 2007, Dot Flint one of the organisers of the event wrote, “I had only intended to do this as a one off, but I am pleased to have been a part of it and seen how it has grown over the past 10 years”. Twenty-two years on the event has seen a number of changes over that time period and many of those original groups in the Town Hall meeting are no longer active in Sandbach but have been replaced by new organisations including the U3A (Formed in 2003), the Rotary Club of Saxon Crosses (2003) and the “Friends” groups (Sandbach Park 2010). Established organisations from that 1997 exhibition were continuing to support the town and the event including the Sandbach Photographic Society (Formed in 1979) and the Sandbach History Society (Formed in 1976) who have not missed any of the Sandbach Today Events.
1997 =
1998 = Jan 1998 (Organised by Congleton Borough Arts)
1999 = 26 November 1999 (Organised by Congleton Borough Arts)
2000 =
2001 =
2002 = Wesley Centre (Organised by Congleton Borough Arts)
2003 = (Sandbach Partnership)
2004 = 18 September 2004 (Organised by Sandbach Partnership)
2005 =
2006 = 30 September 2006 at Sandbach Town Hall
2007 = 29 September 2007 at Sandbach Town Hall (Daytime)
(Organised by Congleton Borough Arts and Sandbach Partnership)
29 September 2007 Celebration event at Town Hall (Evening)
2008 = @@ September 2008 at Sandbach Town Hall.
2009 = 19 September 2009 at Sandbach Town Hall 10am to 2pm.
2010 = 18 September 2010 at Sandbach Town Hall 10am to 2pm. (Opened by Fiona Bruce)
2011 = 17 September 2011 at Sandbach Town Hall 10am to 2pm.
Last Event at the Sandbach Town Hall before it moved to St Mary’s.
2012 = 15 September 2012 at St Mary’s Church Hall between 9.30am and 1.00pm.
2013 = 7 September 2013 at St Mary’s Church Hall between 9.30am and 1.30pm
along with Youth Organisations on the Market Square.
2014 = 20 September 2014 at St Mary’s Church Hall and Market Square.
2015 = 19 September 2015 at St Mary’s Church Hall and Market Square.
2016 = 17 September 2016 at St Mary’s Church Hall and Market Square.
2017 = 16 September 2017 at St Mary’s Church Hall.
2018 = 15 September 2018 at St Mary’s Church Hall.
2019 = 21 September 2019 at St Mary’s Church Hall.
2020 = Cancelled due to Covid 19
SANDBACH PARTNERSHIP
The Partnership has been involved with many aspects of the town from helping to set up groups and to assist with running events including over the years including the Sandbach Light Switch on, Sandbach Today, Halloween event, events in the park including “Play in the Park” and Health and wellbeing fairs in Sandbach.
Formed in 2003 when funding became available from a fund for 16 towns in the North West. The Market Town Initiative Fund was aimed at supporting Market Town’s including Sandbach to help with regeneration.
In those early years a £1.8 million donation helped to build the Sandbach Enterprise Centre, The regeneration of the Market Square and a shop front grant initiative to encourage the improvement of the look of the buildings to bring them in line with the rest of the town.
By 2007 David McGifford was the Enterprise Manager (Enterprise Center) and Julie Walker helped to organise events including the Sandbach Today event.
In 2007 the Sandbach Parnership joined with the Congleton Borough Council and Sandbach Town Council to form a “Sandbach Community Pride” organisation to enter the National Civic Pride competition.
In 2007 they took over the Market Square and replaced the surface along with arranging an archilogical dig to find out more of its history. Replacement of the cobbles took place in August 2008 with plans to finish the project at the end of March 2009. On the 11 July 2009 a launch event was held on the Market Sqaure to celebrate the improvements with activities from local groups and performances from local entertainers.
In 2008 the Parnership set about some projects in Sandbach Park and continued to support the Friends of Sandbach Park as well as funding new pathways and disabled access.
2008 also had funding for new street furniture in the town alongside new litterbins, benches, signposts and noticeboards to tell people of events. The year also had funding for 100 new hanging baskets and eleven continental planters to be distributed around the town.
In 2009 a Historic Trail leaflet was funded by the partnership.
In 2010 the Partnership was involved with a project to develop a comprehensive Town Action Plan for the future development of the town into 2020. Along with the Town Council they would consult on various aspects including cycle lanes and youth projects.
2010 the Friends of Sandbach Park was formed with David Bone a member of the Sandbach Parnership co-orinating the group before its first meeting. (Possibly Nov / Dec 2010)
In May 2010 a fire in the park had caused extensive damage to play equipment with a working group in October 2010 looking at various options to replace damaged items.
In 2007 there was a “Light up a Life” event at the Community Garden on Scotch Common organised by the Sandbach Support Group for St Luke’s Hospice which continues alongside the “Light Switch on event. The 4 December 2009, event included a short service at St John’s Sandbach Heath. This idea was taken a step further by the Partnership with a “Tree of Light Festival”.
On the 8 December 2011 the first Tree of Lights Ceremony took place at Sandbach Cemetery with stars to remember those who have passed away available from the Library, Westfields Council offices, the Sandbach Town Council and the Sandbach Partnership in the Enterprise Centre. Town Mayor Dennis Robinson (and Town Crier) led the service with readings and music from the Sandbach Ladies Choir and St John’s School.
On the 26 October 2013 the Partnership staged its first Halloween Event on the Market Square between 4pm and 7pm with a fancy dress competition and various spooky stalls.
In 2017 the Partnership opened a phone box in the Park which they had moved from Platt Avenue after Stewart Green wrote an article for the Sandbach Chronicle about how it should be saved for the people of the town.
In September 2020 Dot Flint announced that she was standing down as Chairman of the Sandbach Partnership a role she has been at the heart of for 19 years.
In 1994 Dot stood for election to the Sandbach Town Council and Congleton Borough Councils and became councillors for both organisations. Her husband Fred was Chief Executive of Congleton Borough Council. In 1998 Dot Flint became Chairman of Sandbach Town Council (Mayoral Role) and it was then that she started the Sandbach Today event under the funding banner of Congleton Borough Council.
On the 24th November 2020 (Tuesday at 7pm in the Masonic Hall) Dot handed over the role at the AGM.
GROUPS STARTED WITH THE HELP OF THE PARTNERSHIP
Sandbach Fire Cadets
Clean Team
Friends of Sandbach Park
Sandbach Dementia Group
Grassroots Disability
PARTNERSHIP EVENTS
27 Oct 2012 Halloween Event
6 Dec 2012 Tree of Light Ceremony
26 Oct 2013 Halloween Event
5 Dec 2013 Tree of Light Ceremony
1 Nov 2014 Halloween Event / Spooky Saturday
4 Dec 2014 Tree of Light Ceremony
31 Oct 2015 Halloween Event
3 Dec 2015 Tree of Light Ceremony
29 Oct 2016 Halloween Event / Spooky Fancy Dress
8 Dec 2016 Tree of Light Ceremony
28 Oct 2017 Halloween Event / Spooky Spectacular
7 Dec 2017 Tree of Light Ceremony
27 Oct 2018 Halloween Event / Spooky Saturday
6 Dec 2018 Tree of Light Ceremony
26 Oct 2019 Halloween Event / Spooky Saturday. Cancelled at the last minute due to bad weather.
5 Dec 2019 Tree of Light Ceremony
2020 Events Cancelled due to Coronavirus.
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In 2000, Prue Bowles organised a “Festival of Flowers” for the local churches (Helped by the Elworth Flower Club), but felt that many people who would like to attend were unable to do so as they couldn’t climb the stairs. Cllr David Lloyd-Griffiths pointed out that plans had been drawn up earlier for a lift but had been dropped.
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In 2002 a third refurbishment was undertaken and in 2013 alterations were again made to the hall with a retractable stage, new sound system and new bar area being added. The new look Town Hall opened officially on the 19 February 2014.
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Foden’s Band are not the only Brass Band to play regularly at Sandbach Town Hall. The Roberts Bakery Band has held an annual Christmas concert at the venue for many years to raise funds for themselves. (Dates Archived include 21 Dec 2012 / 16 Dec 2016 / 22 Dec 2017 / 15 Dec 2018)
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COMEDY CLUB
In 2012 the town hall became the venue for a touring comedy club. Popular in local theatre bars at the Lyceum (Crewe) and Regent Theatre (Hanley) the companies were keen to expand and held evenings at local town halls including the Nantwich Civic Hall.
On the 27 October 2012 the first “Comedy Night” in Sandbach included comedians Justin Moorhouse, Noel James, Chris Martin, with MC for the Night John Warburton. Some of the acts performed at Sandbach before they became famous and occasionally a star name (At the Time) was on the bill including on the 7 December 2012, as MC for the Night was Howard Read who at the time had his own children’s TV programme and appeared at the 2007 Royal Variety Performance with his act ‘Big Howard Little Howard’ (CBBC).
Organisers included “Comedy Hotspots Team” and a concert in aid of the Sandbach Rugby Club.
COMEDIANS WHO HAVE TAKEN PART
Clinton Baptiste,
Alistair Barrie,
Ninia Benjamin (BBC 3’s 3 Non-Blondes)
Mitch Benn (The Now Show BBC Radio 4),
Andrew Bird,
Marcus Birdman,
Bethany Black,
Eddie Brimson,
Maff Brown,
Barry Castagnola,
Daliso Chaponda,
James Cook,
Tom Deacon,
Kevin Dewsbury,
Carl Donnelly,
Harriet Dyer,
Hayley Ellis,
Angelos Epithmiou (Never Mind the Buzzcocks),
Mick Ferris,
Steve Harris,
Sally Ann Hayward,
Tez Ilyas (Tez O Clock Show on Channel 4),
Noel James,
Leo Kerse,
Gerry Kyei,
Rudi Lickwood
Gary Little,
Dave Longley,
Chris Martin,
Milo McCabe as Troy Hawke,
Danny McLoughin,
Garrett Millerick,
Justin Moorhouse,
Susan Murray,
Cerys Nelmes,
Ben Norris,
Rory O’Hanlon,
Sully O’Sullivan,
Nick Page (2017 Britain’s Got Talent Semi Finalist),
Lauren Pattison,
Philbertol,
Ste Porter,
The Raymond and Mr Timpkins Revue
Howard Read (Big Howard Little Howard)
Christine Reilly,
Rob Rouse,
Adam Rowe,
Joe Rowntree,
Steve Royle,
Silky,
Harry Stachini,
Tom Stade Totally Rocks (7 June 2013 Solo Show)
Andrew Stanley,
Chris Stokes,
Jim Tavare,
John Warburton.
Joseph Wilson,
Rich Wilson,
Simon Wozniak.
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COMMUNITY CINEMA
In 2012 the Sandbach Community Cinema started with the aim of bringing a cinema back to Sandbach by showing its films in the Town Hall on the second Tuesday of the Month.
The first film was shown on the 18 September 2012 and was “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”
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4 May 2013
MAYOR’S INVESTITURE at Town Hall
The Mayor changed from Carolyn Lowe to Mike Benson.
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27 January 2014
HOLOCAUST SERVICE AT THE TOWN HALL
On the 27 January 2014 Cheshire East Council held a Holocaust Service at Sandbach Town Hall. It was the idea of the Leader of Cheshire East, Michael Jones who invited many Councillors from the area to come along to Sandbach Town Hall for a service of remembrance along with members of the public. Cheshire East Mayor Dorothy Flude opened the proceedings followed by a reading from Sandbach Town Mayor Mike Benson, who also introduced violin player Eloise Smith from Congleton High School to play a piece from the John Williams score for “Schindlers List”. Mike had seen Eloise at a recent Sandbach Concert series and contacted her to see if she would be willing to take part in the event.
Michael Jones then invited those present to light candles in remembrance of all those past and present that have been on the receiving end of the sort of genocide seen in Germany during the 2nd world war and other conflicts. He also hoped that it would never happen again but felt this may be a wish that would not be granted. This was the first of what he hoped would be an annual event staged by Cheshire East Council.
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19 February 2014
REFURBISHMENT OF MAIN HALL
The Town Hall in Sandbach was finally opened on Wednesday the 19 February 2014, after a long period of closure for refurbishments. The ceremony then offered a chance for the public and Civic Leaders from Sandbach, Alsager, Cheshire East and the surrounding area to have a look at the updated facilities that any civic hall would be proud of. With more modern rooms the Town Hall now caters for any function with sound, lighting and projection units in the various rooms available for hire.
The Opening what introduced by a wonderful poem performed by the Town’s Town Crier Denis Robinson about the new facilities in the building followed by Councillor Carolyn Lowe the Council’s liaison officer for the project who thanked the various people involved in the project including the many people of the town who expressed an opinion as to what they wanted within the new look facility Finally Mayor Mike Benson gave a historic speech about the building and statistics as to how the cost of refurbishment was better than having to rebuild the structure along with a comparison with its original cost in 1889 when the first foundation stoke was laid.
The ribbon was finally cut for the public to enter the building with the Mayor opening the door to what they hope will be a well-used building. A local resident who had been using the building since 1947 was impressed with the new facilities and hoped that the price would not deter people from using it.
From what I have seen, the facilities are a lot more user friendly catering for the needs of the 21st Century and I hope that the building will last another 125 years.
Improvements included a new look bar area above the main floor with a modern look frontage.
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22 February 2014
2014 TUDOR TIMES AT THE TOWN HALL
The Town Hall in Sandbach went back in time on the 22 February 2014, to the Tudor period for a fundraiser in aid of the Mayor’s Charity when it held a Banquet, Tudor fashion show and Musical entertainment from Piva a 1500’s style group of musicians who proved that good music is never out of date and impressed the audience so much so that I have never seen an unknown group of musician praised so much at the end of a performance like they were. With authentic instruments made by members of the group including an English set of bagpipes they provided authentic music that complimented the fashion show provided by Jenny Unsworth. Jenny who also helped organise the event not only gave an informative commentary on each of the costumes from the various decades of the Tudor period but also made each of them herself. Her costumes have been used at various events for the National Trust and she tries to keep them as authentic as possible by looking at paintings from the period to get the details right. Friends, neighbours and relatives all joined her as models to provide the perfect Tudor fashion show. Mayor, Mike Benson and his family were also clothed by Jenny in Tudor costumes and Dot Flint provided a meal based on some of the food eaten by the people of the time with table decorations and banners to change the ballroom at the town hall into a banqueting hall fit for a Tudor King and Queen. The whole event raised over £500 for the Mayor’s Charity with the Mayor thanking everyone who contributed to the appeal with special praise going to Dot Flint and Jenny Unsworth without whom it would not have worked so well.
The next event for the Mayor’s Charity was an Afternoon Cream Tea at the Town Hall on the 22 March between 3pm to 5.30pm.
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22 March 2014
CREAM TEA AT THE TOWN HALL
The Cream Tea Event at Sandbach Town Hall on Saturday 22 March was a successful event to raise funds for the Mayor’s Charity Fund which this year goes to the Air Ambulance and Shipton Explorer Scouts (Sandbach). The event raise over £750 for the Charity and over 100 people attended the afternoon event with cakes provided by Dot Flint, Gill Merry, Gail Wait, Mary Moran, Sheila Higgins and Kathie Benson. There was also music provided by young musicians who had been involved with the Sandbach Concert Series. Musicians at the event were Billy Proctor (Classical Guitar from Congleton High School); Jamie Gallagher (Clarinet from Haslington Primary School); Adam Pointon (Keyboard from Mablins Lane Primary School Crewe); Ellen Pointon (Saxophone and Guitar from Sandbach High School); Clare Madely (Flute from South Cheshire College) and a Flute Trio of William Roberts, Daniel Turnbull and Joe Tarry.
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11 April 2014
MAYOR’S BALL
Mayor Mike Benson and his consort Mrs Kathie Benson were hosts at the annual Mayor’s Ball in the Town Hall on Friday the 11 April. With dignitaries from around Cheshire and invited guests, the event was the last chance to raise funds for this year’s Mayoral Charities the North West Air Ambulance and the Shipton Explorer Scout Unit (Based in Sandbach).
During the evening the diners and dancers enjoyed local musicians “Out of the Blues” and music for dancing was provided by “Dance Bespoke”.
A fine menu was provided in a three course meal including homemade carrot and coriander soup followed by Scottish Salmon in white wine sauce and for desert a raspberry cheesecake.
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3 May 2014
MAYOR MAKING AT TOWN HALL
Sandbach appointed its new Mayor at an open AGM of Sandbach Town Council on Sunday the 18 May 2014 when members of the public were allowed to attend to see Elsie Alcock appointed for the first time as Mayor of the Town. She has been the Chairman of the Council in 2002-3 and 2009 -10 with her new Deputy Mayor being Gill Merry who along with Elsie has made a large contribution to the area as part of many groups over the years.
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29 June 2014
FREEDOM OF SANDBACH AWARDED TO MERCIAN REGIMENT
On Armed Forces Day the 26 June 2014 the Mercian Regiment was awarded the Freedom of Sandbach Town by Sandbach Town Council in a stunning ceremony in the town. Thousands of people turned out to see the Royal British Legion, local Military and Scouting Groups along with troops from the (1 Mercian) First Battalion of the Mercian Regiment who represented the 3 Battalions of the Mercian’s who have just been renamed after the Counties they now represent.
Second in Command, Major Rob Prentice from the regiment in his early life grew up in the town of Sandbach, going to St Winifred’s Church and he was also educated at Elworth Primary School. He along with many local soldiers from Crewe and Congleton brought with them their families to see them marching through the town from Westfield’s to the Market Square and then onto a service at St Mary’s before the Regiment made use of their Freedom by marching from the Church to Scotch Common and round the car park to outside the Town Hall car park ready for a reception at the Town Hall to celebrate the occasion.
Organised by the British Legion from an idea suggested by Mrs Marjorie Newton the event was a great success as the 6th Armed Forces day marched through Sandbach with the music of the Silk Band from Macclesfield leading the procession and who played the Regimental March on the square as well as providing some of the music in the church along with Kevin Birch the organist at St Mary’s. The Revd. Thomas Shepherd led the service with readings from to Lt Col Mark Ellwood of the First Mercian, the High Sheriff of Cheshire Mrs Susan Sellers, Regimental Sergeant-Major WOI Richard Page and Mrs Marjorie Newton the Chairman of the Sandbach Branch of the Royal British Legion.
On the Market Square Sandbach Town Council Mayor Elsie Alcock had handed over the freedom to Lt Col Mark Ellwood MBE of the regiment with the High Sheriff of Cheshire, Mrs Susan Sellers, MP Fiona Bruce and representatives of the Royal British Legion in attendance.
The event then moved to the Town Hall for a reception.
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In the 1930’s the Town Hall had staged a Pantomime by local groups. On Monday the 29 December 2014, Talegate Theatre came to town with the first of a number of Pantomimes with “CINDERELLA” being the first of these productions.
PANTO
Mon 29 Dec 2014 “CINDERELLA”
Mon 28 Dec 2015 “JACK AND THE BEANSTALK”
Thurs 29 Dec 2016 “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST”
Thurs 28 Dec 2017 “DICK WHITTINGTON”
Thurs 27 Dec 2018 “SLEEPING BEAUTY”.
Fri 27 Dec 2019 “ALADDIN”.
2020 Cancelled due to Coronavirus.
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18 April 2015
YOUNG MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR
On the Saturday of the Sandbach Transport Festival (18th April 2015) there was an added bonus. A show of musical excellence that rivalled the entertainment provided on the square. It was the first “Young Musician of the Year” competition held by the Sandbach Concert Series organisers who this year have decided to hold an event to showcase local talent of all ages with ten players in the Senior Section and five in the Junior Section. All the players have featured in the Concert Series during the year and have come from local schools to compete for prizes which were judged by professional musicians Sophie Rosa and Sally Wigan who like the competitors have featured in the concerts at St Mary’s Church Hall.
Audiences were amazed at the high standard of performance and it was a difficult decision that the judges had to make with prizes being awarded to Billy Proctor on Guitar who came third with a £25 prize, Matthew Brett who was second on percussion winning £50 and the overall winner in first place was Alex Flanders on Trumpet who picked up £100 and the title of the first Sandbach Young Musician of the Year.
There was also a special prize donated by international conductor Bramwell Tovey who on the 25 January 2015 had given an interview to John Barber of Fodens Band as a special event for the Concert Series which is now available to view on the Brass Band website ‘4 bars rest’. When he heard about the competition he decided to donate his fee for the January event to provide a special prize for the player who in the eyes of the judges was of special merit. The first award was given to Richard Rhodes who played the Bass Tuba.
The prizes were handed out by Sandbach Transport Festival Organisers and Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Sandbach, Elsie and Graham Alcock along with MP Fiona Bruce.
This became an annual event only missing 2020 when Covid 19 cancelled all events in the town.
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22 July 2015
SMART MOTORWAY IN SANDBACH EXHIBITION
On Wednesday the 22 July 2015, Highways England (The old Highways Agency) hosted an exhibition at Sandbach Town Hall to show the proposed alterations to the M6 between junctions 16 and 19 with a new ‘smart Motorway” scheme.
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3 October 2015
TEA WITH THE MAYOR
Started three years ago the annual Cream Tea with the Mayor event has been a great success raising funds for the Mayor’s Charity and this year is no exception. Gill Merry the Town's Mayor held her event in Sandbach Town Hall on the 3 October with many people from the local community coming along to partake in the scones, carrot cake, cream cakes and tea served by a number of volunteers and Councillors including Carolyn Lowe and on the door Mike Benson.
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16 October 2015
UNBORN ACTS AT TOWN HALL
The idea of Richard Husdan the new conference and events manager at Sandbach Town Hall, “Unborn” is a chance for new bands and singers to be seen by a wider audience and in the future hopefully some talent scouts are in the audience to discover them. On Friday the 16 October 2015 the first event in town hall took place with help from John Barber (Love Music Trust and Sandbach School) and Sandbach School who provided the bands for the evening. Eric Ball played some of his own songs plus cover versions while Ollie and Maliek filled in the middle slot plus joining other friends to play in the band Remedies who ended the evening with a loud ‘set” of music including new tunes and favourite covers.
Richard had tried the event out when he was working at the Corn Hall in the Cotswolds with great success and asked Sandbach Town Council if they would like to run a similar event in the Town. Keen to help local people the Council agreed to allow him to run the event at the town hall with minimum cost and gaining what expenses were spent back by charging £4 for a ticket to see the bands.
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27 January 2016
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY ON BBC RADIO STOKE
Cheshire East has celebrated Holocaust Memorial Day since 2013. On the 27 January 2016, Cheshire East Council invited members of the public to attend the event. ###############################################
9- 14 May 2016
SANDBACH ARTS FESTIVAL
In 2016, between the 9th and 14th May Sandbach Town Hall was busy with an event that we hadn’t seen in the town for a number of years.
Back in 1969, Sandbach had its first advertised “Art’s Festival” sometime during March or April. By 1992 when the next Festival was organised by “Balcony Arts” it featured celebrity names Tom Robinson, Dave Gorman and Manchester Camerata during the 3 days of the event and in 1993 Lindisfarne and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra provided the entertainment along with local artists followed in 1996 by performances by The Manfreds, Fairport Convention (Acoustic), Mark Lamarr (Comedian / TV Presenter), Nigel Planer (Young Ones), George Melly with John Chilton’s Feetwalmers, John Shuttleworth, Snowy White (Singer) and Circle Sensible all taking part.
In 2016, Richard Husdan the Conference and Events Manager at Sandbach Town Hall put together a line-up of different events over the week to celebrate, “Sandbach Arts Week”. The week started with an “Authors and Awards” event which was a co-production with Sandbach Library. Five writers performed at the Town Hall on the Monday with Catherine Green (Vampire Romance), Gill Hoffs (Writer and Broadcaster), Charles Heathcote (“Our Doris” Books), Margaret Holdbrook (Poet and Writer) and Elizabeth Morgan (Erotic Romances by local writer whose real name is Laura Surgenor), talking to about 25 readers who chatted to the authors at the event and afterwards when they sold and signed their books.
On Tuesday 120 people attended a showing of the film, “The Danish Girl” which was put on with the help of the Sandbach Community Cinema group and was very different from the usual popular films that they stage at the Town Hall each month, with a few of the viewers slightly offended by some of the content of the film.
On the Wednesday there was a “Baby Sensory event” and the following day 70 people attended an event by the Street Dance Academy as they premiered their production of “Borough 10 the Revolution”, before they took it to London.
The week ended on the Saturday was the “Little Cheshire Fair”, a vintage craft event with over 400 people coming through the door of the Town Hall.
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3 July 2016
DENNIS ROBINSON GIVEN FREEDOM OF SANDBACH
Dennis Robinson has received the greatest honour a town can give to one of its Citizens “The Freedom of Sandbach” for his many years of contributions to the life of this Market Town and in particular for his work as Town Crier.
The original competition to find a Town Crier for Sandbach took place in the Market Square in April 1978 some 150 years since the town had a Town Crier. Organised by Councillor’s Bob Holmes (Sandbach Town Council) and Mrs Eileen Henshall (Congleton Borough Council) the competition was won by 45 year old Don Burgess a wages boss at Fodens Motor Works Ltd. However, he was unable to commit to the job and soon it fell upon neighbouring Crier from Crewe Tom Clarkson to officiate at various events depending on his commitments in his home town.
In 1983 Dennis Robinson was asked to take on the role and so the job was passed to him by Lawrence Yarwood (Mayor) with Crewe Town Crier Tom Clarkson in attendance. Since then he has never refused to do a “Shout” to publicise an event in the town even when he was Mayor of Sandbach he continued to combine the two roles. It is because of his commitment to the Town and the immense pleasure he has bestowed upon the people of Sandbach in this role that he was given the “Freedom of Sandbach” at a ceremony on the 3 July 2016 which was part of the Civic Parade and Service. Carolyn Lowe led the tributes to Dennis with a look back at his life in Sandbach.
From the 1980’s Dennis was a keen member of the Christmas Lights and Transport Festival Committees. Ruth Robinson, his late wife supported Dennis in his role and during the Transport Festival helped him arrange the Town Criers Competition as well as providing the food for the participants over the weekend.
He has also been a trustee of the Sandbach Literary Institute and continues to serve on the board of the Alms Houses. He is a keen member of the Sandbach Heath Methodist Church congregation and has used his tradesman’s skills to maintain the fabric of the building as well as helping to raise funds and has also run the Sunday School. Carolyn Lowe said “Dennis was an extremely worthy recipient of the Freedom of Sandbach” and then presented him with a series of pictures in a frame celebrating his life as the Town Crier with one picture of him in his Red Coat another in his new Green Coat and the middle picture is of him becoming Crier in 1983. Bill Scragg a former Councillor and colleague of Dennis’s was then called upon to say a few words. He started by saying Carolyn had stolen his thunder as she had mentioned a lot of what he was going to say but was then able to add other stories about his friend Dennis.
“Dennis has been up and down the country representing Sandbach in various Town Crier Competitions and has even been to the South of France to represent Manchester in their Olympic Bid. Bill then went on to talk about the Sandbach Heath Christmas party (At the Methodist Church) which was something to behold as you were co-opted into doing various songs including ‘Old Tom Cobley and All’ as part of the entertainment”.
Mayor of Sandbach, Keith Haines then officially handed Dennis the scroll for the Freedom of Sandbach and congratulated him on the award to the sound of applause.
Dennis then made a speech, thanking Keith for allowing him to “share the event at Sandbach Town Hall” which held so many memories. He was now standing on this new floor which then reminded Dennis of the previous one when he stood on the old floor having paid 2/6 to get in for the Saturday Dance. Born in the cottage next to the Cricketers Arms it was at the age of 18 months that he and his parents moved back to Sandbach Heath where the Heathcote and Robinson family were.
Devout Christians the family went to Church each week at which Mr William Street was also a member of the Sandbach Heath congregation. It was he who built the Picture Palace in the town as well as being the Sunday School superintendent when Dennis was a child. Mr Street was an elderly gentleman by the time Dennis knew him and had a beard. Dennis’s father was an apprentice with Mr Street when they built the Cinema and when they were knocking it down he wasn’t too well and asked Dennis (His son) if he could get a brick from the demolished building to remind his of what he and Mr Street had built for the town.
Dennis then went on to talk about what the Freedom of Sandbach entitled him to do. Drive Sheep or Geese through the Town and also banging a drum while doing this. He recalled that he had one of the original Foden’s Band Drums with only one side with a skin on it and thought it would be a good idea to use this when he went through the town with his sheep (Loaned by a local farmer). He then picked up on what Bill Scragg had said about the Christmas party at which Dennis was always the first to be shoved out with his big drum which he used to beat out the time for pianist Betty Street before the rest of the company joined them on stage for a song or two.
Carolyn then made the toast to Dennis Robinson followed by a wonderful buffet and many people congratulating him on this achievement.
A feature in the Council’s magazine highlighted some of the events Dennis has been involved with.
In 1987 Dennis Robinson became the National Champion at Hastings and also won First Prize at the competition in Clitheroe. In May 1993 Dennis was asked by City Crier Doug Brittain to represent Manchester in Monte Carlo for their Olympic Bid as the City also wanted their Crier in Paris to promote their bid at the same time and he was unable to do both jobs. Within 30 minutes Dennis was packed and headed towards Manchester Airport where he boarded a flight to the South of France along with a number of Celebrities including Bobby Charlton and soon Dennis struck up a conversation with his wife Norma. Celebrity encounters continued in the four-day event with an event at a Sporting club at which Shirley Bassey sang and he was seated on the neighbouring table to Princess Anne at a banquet.
In 1999 Dennis won the Shield at Newquay followed in 2002 by wining the Cup and Shield at Llandinrod Wells and in 2003 he was the 3rd Best Dressed Crier in the World Championships.
In 2015 Dennis was seen in Sandbach in a new Green uniform which had been specially made for him and was a change from the usual red uniforms he had worn since taking office.
With these awards and his time on Sandbach Town Council as well as many other committees Dennis Robinson was justly given the “Freedom of Sandbach” on the 3 July 2016.
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8 July 2016
BBC BROADCAST ANY QUESTIONS “LIVE”
On the 8 July 2016 the BBC Political Debate show on Radio 4, “ANY QUESTIONS” broadcast live from Sandbach Town Hall with Jonathan Dimbleby in the chair.
Due to be at a town in Northern Ireland the producers had a change of mind when the political situation in Northern Ireland at this moment in time made it difficult to talk about subjects that week so the “Any Questions” producers at BBC Radio 4 decided a new venue should be found to host the live programme on the 8 July 2016. Sandbach Town Hall was the perfect venue for the broadcast and Lisa Jenkinson the producer of the programme set about organising the event.
Jonathan Dimbleby as usual was in the chairman’s seat with Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, Conservative Dominic Grieve, Labours Gisela Stuart and Daily Telegraph columnist Liam Hagan on the panel.
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5 November 2016
WRITERS EVENT
After the departure of Richard Husdan, a new Conference and Events Officer was appointed. Laura Surgenor who was also known as writer Elizabeth Morgan continued to stage events and after the success of the arts week writers’ event, she arranged for a few of her fellow writers to come to Sandbach for an event where the people of the town could talk to 21 authors from the area and beyond.
Dianna Hardy probably came the furthest as she lives in Havant, South Hampshire, with most of the writers living within a 20-mile radius of Sandbach Town Centre including Catherine Green from Middlewich, Matt Clarke who brought a series of Comic books he has drawn and written, Jane Cooper on the other hand brought a children’s book called “The Dragon in the Drain” and Winterley writer John Paul Goss talked about, “The King if Ithaca” based in Serbia. Amazon best-selling author Caroline James brought her book “Coffee Tea, The Caribbean and me” and its sequel to the event on the 5 November 2016. Cover model Martin Nelson was also available to have his picture taken for a donation in aid of Charity.
The event was also held on Saturday the 23 September 2017, with authors Nikki Ashton, C.A. Bell, Jane Cooper, P R Ellis, Scarlet Flame, Catherine Green, Liz Hedgecock, Angela Marie James, Glen Martin James, Lizzie James, R J F Holland, Victoria Johns, M L Kacy, D A Lascelles, Elizabeth Morgan, Laura Morgan, Claire Plaisted, Bella Sattarra, R A Smith, T L Wainwright and Jim Webster.
A third event was held on the 18 August 2018 with writers Sarah Lysaght (“37 Downing Street” / “Loyalty on the Home Sweet Home Front” / “The Manchester Bradshaw’s”). Susi Osborne (“The Ripples of Life” (2008), “Grace and Disgrace” and “Secrets, Lies and Butterflies” (2013)) along with (Nigel) N J Cartner, (“Lost in Manchester found in Vegas”). K Spencer (“Angel” (2016), Princess (2017)). Lucy Felthouse (Erotic Romantic novels), Scribbelious (various books), Paul Bernardi (Historic Suspense Novels, “To the Devil his Due” and “Thurkill’s Revenge”), (Tracy) T N Traynor (Mystical Quest Novel Series, “Oracle’s Quest”, (Charlotte) C A Keith (Ghostly Writes Anthology), Claire Plaisted (Female secret investigator and also featured in the Ghostly Writes Anthology of short stories), and Elizabeth Morgan (Urban Fantasy and Erotic Horror).
(Richard would return in another role within the Council)
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19 November 2016
Royal British Legion Dance with the Roy Peters Sound.
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27 January 2017
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY ON BBC RADIO STOKE
Cheshire East has celebrated Holocaust Memorial Day since 2013 and in 2014, the first event had taken part at the town hall. On the 27 January 2017, Cheshire East Council invited members of the public and BBC Radio Stoke along to help mark the event.
The event was opened by Cheshire East Mayor Olivia Hunter who gave a brief introduction to the reasons for the Memorial Day before introducing Sandbach Town Council Mayor Keith Haines who read out some accounts from Jews who had survived the holocaust.
Retired Dentist and Survivor from Austria, Peter Kurer then spoke about the debt that he owed to the Quakers who during the Second World War petitioned parliament to allow the children of Jewish parents to come to Britain before Hitler imposed his Anti-Jewish laws. They also helped to raise funds for the £50’s needed to bring them into the country and adoption facilities in what is known as the Kinder Transport. Nine members of Peter’s family were saved in this way and he has championed the work of the Quakers ever since. His inspirational talk was followed by a Soprano Cornet performance of “On with the Motley” by Sandbach School pupil William Dakin.
Chief Executive of Cheshire East, Mike Suarez spoke about “How Life Can Go On after the Holocaust”, before the congregation were invited to light a candle in remembrance followed by the Rev Thomas Shepherd who gave a reading, prayer and period of silence to end the event.
The event was recorded by BBC Radio Stoke for broadcast in an edited format on the following Sunday during their, “In Praise of God” slot.
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18 February 2017
MAYORS BALL TURNS INTO VARIETY SHOW AND BUFFET
Sandbach Mayor Keith Haines decided to change the traditional Mayor’s Ball into something that reflects his own life and interests. This also included asking his old friend, Crewe born comedian Don Reid who lived and worked for many years in Sandbach to act as MC for the evening, during which he reflected on his time in the town including working in the old Gas Showroom on Crewe Road. Having been in a singing trio of Eric Bailey, Keith Haines and Don Reid it was one night when the Guitar and PA Amp broke down that Don decided to start telling jokes to the audience to fill the time while Keith fixed the equipment starting him on the road to a new job that takes him round the world telling jokes on Cruises, in clubs and even on TV. During the event at the Town Hall on the 18 February 2016 all three were reunited for the first time in many years with Don and Keith raising funds for the Mayor’s Charity along with singing duo “Bakerfield” and Rockabilly trio “VaVoom” who provided the after-buffet entertainment at which Mayor’s from Cheshire East, Middlewich, Congleton, Knutsford and Macclesfield danced the night away with moves that put the public of Sandbach to shame. Before the dancing there was a raffle and auction where a Stoke City, Shirt was sold for over £70 helping the fund towards local Youth Charities and the Stepping Hill Hospital.
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12 March 2017
WEDDING FAIR AT TOWN HALL
Sandbach held another wedding fair at the Town Hall with various representatives showing different aspects of what is needed for a wedding. Stalls included photographers, flowers, makeup and of course dresses and suits.
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15 April 2017
CARNEY ACADEMY OPEN DAY FOR YOUNG PERFORMERS
Freelance TV Director Ruth Carney brought her experience of the entertainment world to Sandbach with her “Carney Academy” at the Town Hall. Ruth and three experienced tutors held an open day at the venue on the 15 April 2017 for prospective students who would like to lean about acting, dancing and singing.
Starting on May 6th for youngsters between the ages of 4 and 19 Ruth hopes to have lessons on a weekly basis which Richard Husdan of the Town Hall is looking forward to staging in the multi-purpose venue.
Originally from Talk Pitts in Staffordshire, Ruth then went to Sheffield where she was the Associate Director of the Theatres there and now has moved back to Sandbach with her husband and has decided to set up a school in the town having previously started a group in Sheffield seven years ago and she hopes for the same success in Sandbach that she had originally.
Ruth has teachers from Uttoxeter, Middlewich and Stockport and at the open day attracted people from Congleton, Crewe, Middlewich, Sandbach and has chosen the Town Hall to house the event as it is central to the South Cheshire area and also the town with easy access for students. The course is designed for amateur and hopeful professionals who would like to get into, “The Business” and with Ruth and her teachers experience they can be guided into this world of entertainment, something she herself found difficult herself as her parents didn’t have that background to tell her what to do.
Classes will start on Saturdays at 9am to 10am for 4-7 Year Olds. 10am to 1pm for 8-11 Year Olds / 12- 14 Year Olds / 15- 19 Year Olds with a chance to do all three disciplines each week.
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29 April 2017
STEAM PUNK COMES TO SANDBACH
With successful festivals in Crewe and around the Country, “Steam Punk” has come to Sandbach for a successful market and show in the town. Held on the 29th and 30th April 2017 the Market was laid out in the Town Hall with about twenty stalls selling items with a slightly different style from Cybermen heads to Si-fi guns (Not working), walking sticks, Victorian clothing and items made out of scrap metal.
David Smith one of the organisers of the festival explained that Steam Punk was a wide-ranging genre loosely based on Victorian Science Fiction and Fantasy, like the books of H G Wells and Jules Verne and is an excuse to dress up and have fun. The term was coined 30 years ago but was preceded by the style which was based on an offshoot of Victorian re-enactment and Goth clothes with the twist of “What the Victorian Era Might have been like had it continued and had the technology stayed in that era with things powered by Steam and clockwork mechanisms”. Unlike re-enactment the dress code is not that strict and so anything is acceptable with people taking ideas from each other and from films like ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ or Will Smith’s ‘Wild, Wild West’ which both feature the clothing of the style. Waistcoats, Pocket Watches, Canes and Goggles seem popular with the gentlemen while Victorian clothing and corsets is a feature for the ladies. The Goggles seem to dominate the style as there is an obsession with the thought of going to the moon or general travel in an airship which is featured in a lot of the modern novels in the Steam Punk range.
A concert at St Mary’s Church Hall on the Saturday Evening included the Town Jester of Conway as MC with headline act, ‘Victor and the Bully’ (Jolly Dance Tunes with a Macabre theme) who after Sandbach performed at the Steam Punk World Fair in Piscataway, New Jersey in the USA the biggest festival of its kind.
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21 May 2017
YOUTH MARKET AT SANDBACH TOWN HALL
An overwhelming opinion at a consultation of what to do with the town hall in Sandbach was to make more use if the space on all seven days. Town Hall staff staged a variety of events since then on a Sunday and on the 21 Mar 2017, there was a Youth Market in the Market Hall showing off the talent and entrepreneurial skills of the younger generation. Stall holders at the event were Hayley Emma Art who displayed paintings of well-known people as well as her Henna business, Tomos Price-Jones sold his computer games, George Smith from Fleetwood came down to Sandbach with his father as he does every Saturday to sell eggs on the Market. Matt Clarke sold his own science fiction books and Christian Turner showed off pictures he had painted with views of Sandbach among his work. Laura Surgenor (Writer Elizabeth Morgan) from the town hall kept an eye on the event along with selling her books and jewellery next to Katherine Buckley’s food, drink and small notices with various sayings on them including, “There is always time for tea, and there is always room for cake”. There was in Sandbach Town Hall, time for the youth and room to encourage them to start their own business.
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24 June 2017
HARRY POTTER CELEBRATES 20 YEARS
Yes, it was 20 years since the first book in the Harry Potter Series reached the shelves of the nation and on Saturday the 24 June 2017, Sandbach celebrated this milestone with a party at the Town Hall hosted by Laura Surgenor the conference and events officer at Sandbach Town Council. With the hall divided into the various houses of Hogwarts School there was a Harry Potter Quiz, food and all the children dressed up as characters from the film with most appearing as Harry Potter himself and at least one as Voldemort. It was also such an exciting event that one child celebrated his birthday at the town hall surrounded by his friends as they watched the first instalment of the film series “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” on the big screen.
The first book was released on the 26 June 1997 and the series of novels have since sold over 500 million copies in 73 different languages by 2013.
In 1990, J K Rowling was travelling on a four-hour delayed train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry Potter came into her head. The writer has never said which station she was close to when the idea came to her but one of those could have been Sandbach or Crewe.
In 1995 the first book was finished and was sent off to various publishers who rejected the book, however the second agent (Christopher Little) to receive the first instalment offered to represent J K Rowling and offered the book to Bloomsbury who took up the option for the series and the rest is history.
In 1998, J K Rowling sold the rights to Warner Brothers to make the stories into films with the first episode being released on the 14 November 2001 with Daniel Radcliffe as Harry.
The seventh and final book in the series “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was published on the 21 July 2007, selling 11 million copies in the first 24 hours around the world. This was not however the end of the stories as a play based on an idea by JK was staged in 2016 at the Palace Theatre, London and called “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”. It was set 19 years after the final book’s last chapter and a book based on the play was released making nine stories about Harry Potter.
Costumes, memorabilia, books about the series, DVD’s, Blue Ray, Playstation games, models, Lego and the film experience by Warner Brothers continue to keep interest in Harry Potter going hopefully for another 20 years.
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1 September 2017
MOONLIGHT MARKET
Sandbach held its first Moonlight Market on the 1st September 2017. A joint venture between the Town Council and traders from the Indoor Market the event attracted hundreds of people who enjoyed a variety of food stalls along with music by Eddie Ogle who stepped in at the last minute to busk at the event at the back of the town hall. Inside the hall itself regular traders were joined by a mixture of stalls selling crafts, food and other items.
The moon itself could be seen in the twilight evening as the sun set over the town as traders packed away at 8pm having enjoyed a lot of interest in this event which started at 5pm in the afternoon.
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23 September 2017
AUTHOR SIGNING EVENT ANOTHER SUCCESS
On the 23 September 2017, the second ‘Author Signing Event’ at Sandbach Town Hall was attended by more visitors than last year’s inaugural event run by Laura Surgenor (Writer Elizabeth Morgan) the conference and events manager of Sandbach Town Council. Some of the twenty-one writers had returned to Sandbach after last year’s event. This year’s authors attending the event were, Nikki Ashton, C.A. Bell, Jane Cooper, P R Ellis, Scarlet Flame, Catherine Green, Liz Hedgecock, Angela Marie James, Glen Martin James, Lizzie James, R J F Holland, Victoria Johns, M L Kacy, D A Lascelles, Elizabeth Morgan, Laura Morgan, Claire Plaisted, Bella Sattarra, R A Smith, T L Wainwright and Jim Webster.
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13 November 2017
TOWN HALL TURNS PURPLE
Sandbach Town Hall turned Purple on the 13 November 2017 in aid of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month as part of a Nation campaign to bring the cancer to be noticed via the lighting up of a number of prominent buildings around the Country with Crewe’s Municipal Building was also being lit up for the awareness month. Local fundraising organiser Jill Murray persuaded Sandbach Town Council to put filters on their lights to change its colour and thanked the Council and Staff at the Town Hall for making the changes which were on display until the 30 November 2017 and made a welcome addition to the Sandbach Christmas Lights from the 25 November.
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23 November 2017
MARKET HALL CONSULTATION FOR PLANS
Sandbach Town Council consulted with Market Traders and interested bodies as to what to do with the indoor market after aborted plans to put in a second floor were unanimously condemned by the public.
On Monday the 20th November 2017 Councillors were given information about the proposals which were then put to the public in two consultation events at the Town Hall on the following Wednesday and Thursday.
David Trowler Associates have drawn up some plans with colour schemes in Mallard or Chalke Green which proposed that the current market stalls should be refitted with more solid bases that would be easier to clean. The side stalls will also be refitted with shutters that have images on them associated with Sandbach, possibly from old postcards and pictures so the hall continues to have something on the walls even if the stalls are not open for other events. The circular windows along the walls will be fitted with clear glass to let in more light and will be illuminated with bulbs that can change colour to make them a feature at night. New signage on the outside will be illuminated with traders in the side stalls having their names above their pitch that will tell customers the stall holders name and business.
LED lighting will be used to make the building more economic while the outside toilets will be altered to make way for storage space for the moveable stalls used on the Saturday Outside Market and better Baby Changing facilities in the disabled and ladies’ toilets will be made more available. The roof itself will be changed to a textured glass without wires which should let in more light that the current glass giving it a more spacious look.
Alterations will also be made to the exits with automatic hinged doors opening into a small lobby which should stop the heat escaping from the building.
The exterior and interior brickwork will also be looked at with running repairs to the structure of the building at a cost of 46,000 that would have had to be paid for even if the scheme was not adopted as bricks and other parts of the building are already in need of repair.
The total cost of the proposed scheme will be £175,000 including VAT and the repair costs, according to Sandbach Town Council and Mayor Martin Forster who was one of a number of Councillors who explained the proposals to Stall Holders and the public at the consultation meetings.
The Council hope these proposals will breathe back life into the market and make the facilities more available for events from Monday to Sunday inclusive.
Proposed dates for the alterations started with the proposals and on the 27 November and continued with consultations with planners and conservationists. Next would be asking for tenders to be put in for the awarding of the contract on the 15th January 2018 and a proposed starting date for work in February 2018 and a proposed finishing date in April. Those attending the exhibitions seemed to support the scheme with some minor alterations and additions put forward, which Councillors agreed to look into.
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26 January 2018
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE
Cheshire East Council held its annual Holocaust Memorial Day Service on Friday the 26 January 2018 a day earlier than the actual Holocaust Memorial Day so Council workers, Mayors from around the area and children from three East Cheshire Schools could take part in the days events.
The proceedings were presented by the Mayor of Cheshire East Cllr Arthur Moran who said that one of the first to liberate a concentration camp was a tank driver from Crewe (John Cole who was in the first tank to liberate the Bergen-Bensen Camp). Cllr Moran then introduced Sandbach Mayor Martin Forster who read various poems about the Holocaust followed by a clarinet solo by Sandbach School pupil, Mark Wheeler who played the theme to Schindler’s List (John Williams). Music was also provided by the Knutsford Academy 6th Form Vocal Group who sang two beautiful versions of the songs ‘Tears in Heaven’ (Eric Clapton) and John Lennon’s, ‘Imagine’.
Now in its fifth year the service has for the last two years included the introduction of memories by people caught up in the events of the Holocaust. Last year retired dentist and survivor from Austria, Peter Kurer spoke about the debt that he owed to the Quakers who had petitioned parliament to allow the children of Jewish parents to come to England thus saving nine members of his family. This year it was the turn of sisters Gisela Feldman and Sonia Sternberg who with their mother managed to get on the ship the St Louis which set sail on the 13 May 1939, with 937 Jews and travelled from Hamburg to Cuba, but were turned away as Visas issued to the Polish / German Jews were withdrawn before they arrived and so they were eventually turned back only to land in London where they spent the rest of the war.
Mark Palethorpe from Cheshire East invited the audience to hold a two-minute silence after which the congregation were asked to light candles for those who hadn’t survived the Holocaust followed by prayers from the vicar of St Mary’s, Sandbach the Rev. Thomas Shepard.
Giesla and Sonia recounted their lives in Germany just before leaving as well as the journey to a new life.
Giesla was born in 1923 of Polish parents with the family moving to Germany where she and her younger sister were the only Jewish girls in their school, a place without discrimination where they enjoyed the usual school life enjoying making friends, invitations to birthday parties as well as taking part in games with the other students. When Hitler came into power in German after he became Chancellor in January 1933 making himself the leader of a one-party country there were marches in the street on the 1st May with workers on one side and the SS Marching on the opposite side of the road. As things progressed there were a number of people shot and the bodies were dragged into the street in full view of the young girls. As a 10-year-old Giesla knew that life would never be the same again. Brown shirts as they were known stood outside Jewish shops trying to persuade Germans not to buy from them, which was in general ignored by regular customers. However, as time went on people started to become more afraid of these supporters of Hitler who would daub words like “Jew Supporter” on the buildings of people who had purchased goods from the Jewish community with some of them being attacked in the streets. Fearing for their families, support suddenly disappeared and it became more and more difficult to run the family business as wholesalers refused to supply goods and on a number of occasions Giesla and Sonia’s father was beaten up just for being Jewish.
At the age of 11 Giesla moved to a Jewish Grammar School where life was a little easier.
In October 1938, there was a knock on the family door and two men told her father to get dressed and bring his passport as he was being taken away with no explanation as to what was happening. Not knowing what was going on Giesla went into the kitchen to make some sandwiches for her father to take with him on what turned out to be a two-day journey which they found out later was because he was being deported back to Poland where he was born and so the food became very useful. Poland had decided that anyone who had a Polish Passport and had not been back to their country after a certain length of time would lose their nationality and so had no right to be in any country apart from Poland. With this position from the Polish Government, Germany decided to deport these unwanted citizens to Poland so they were not left with illegal immigrants. Germany at first only sent back the men of the household as they didn’t have enough trains to cater for whole families. With their father in Poland the family home soon came under threat from the German Government as a German family wanted their rooms. They were threatened with eviction but Giesla and Sonia’s mother decided to fight the decision and went to court where she won a stay of eviction for three months, a period of time the Judge gave them to clear out the house of all their belongings. This move by Germany to get rid of its Jewish population by eviction started to show that something had to be done by the family before it became worse and so Giesla and Sonia’s mother applied to the Cuban Embassy for a Visa to get as far away from Germany as possible. She was successful, in her application for herself, Giesla and Sonia her husband who in theory was able to come back from Poland as long as it was only in transit and this is where things started to go wrong for the “family”.
Germany as usual was a very organised country but Poland was not as efficient and through a mix-up Giesla and Sonia’s father was not given his Visa as his brother was issued with his papers and sent back to Germany rather than their father leaving him to make his own way on a later ship with a new set of papers his wife had secured for him two weeks later.
The family finally left for the port after a mix-up with their own Visas on a Friday to board the ship which is not usual for Jews as they shouldn’t travel on a Friday. They were seen off by friends of the family who knew this would be the last time that they would see them as they went to their new country. They boarded the German ship the St Louis which set sail on Saturday the 13 May 1939, with 937 Jews travelling from Hamburg to Cuba.
Sonia said that the Captain was wonderful towards the passengers even allowing the Jewish women to light candles on a Friday.
They eventually reached Havana Harbour in Cuba on the 27 May 1939, but as they tried to dock they were told that they couldn’t land and had to wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow turned out to be seven days later despite Captain Gustav Schroeder, speaking directly to the Government of Cuba pleading for them to let in his passengers. One man who Sonia thought had been in a concentration camp before he left Germany tried to commit suicide by jumping off the ship into the water. He had been released by the Germans only because he could prove he had somewhere outside of Germany to go to with his wife, but as they arrived in Cuba the Cuban immigration department would only allow him to enter their country as he had a valid US Visa but his wife had to stay on board as she was not welcome. After being pulled from the water he was evacuated to a Havana Hospital for treatment but it is not clear what happened to his wife at this time.
After seven days being refused entry to Cuba on the 2 June 1939 the Captain turned the ship towards America and sailed along the Florida coast towards Miami but due to the US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1924 limiting the number of immigrants to the USA in each year they were refused entry despite their being a large amount of media coverage and various passengers sending cables (Electronic Mail) to President Franklin D Roosevelt himself. Another possibility was Canada who again like the US they refused entry for the Jews. An American diplomat did however talk to a number of European Countries about the passengers and four Countries agreed to take them. The Captain turned the ship towards the East with France taking 224 passengers (a temporary refuge as Germany Invaded their Country), Holland (181 Passengers), Belgium (214 Passengers) and Great Britain who took 228 passengers with all but one of them surviving in the UK during the war (The one killed was in an air raid in 1940).
However, with the publicity about the ship in the papers their father never made it to Cuba or Britain as the ship he was on only reached Antwerp before the Captain heard the news that the St Louis had been refused to land in Cuba and he turned the ship back to Germany. From Germany Gisela and Sonia’s father was sent back to Poland just before war broke out and the family never saw him again. What happed to him we may never know as he seemed to just disappear from the records. German Jews were catalogued and their records are kept but the Jews records in Poland were not as well documented and so there doesn’t seem to be a record of Sonia and Gisela’s father being killed or dying in an air raid or being taken prisoner and sent to a concentration camp.
When Sonia, Gisela and their mother arrived in London they were met by the sight of bunting at the railway station which was not for them but the King and Queen had been abroad and were coming back on the same day.
Gisela was sent to do domestic work while Sonia and her mother found a room in North London where after the first night Sonia found she had blotches all over herself from Bed Bugs. The following day they found a Jewish lady who took them both in. Gisela went on to make uniforms when the War broke out and now both have families in Britain and are able to relate their story to a receptive audience at the Holocaust Memorial Day Event at Sandbach Town Hall.
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27 March 2018
FODEN’S BAND LAUNCH HISTORY WEBSITE
Foden’s Band held a special concert to launch their new website which will show off their 118-year history. The performance at Sandbach Town Hall on the 27 March 2018 was watched over by William Foden’s bust which had been saved from a fire at the band-room a couple of years ago and had been restored as part of a project to preserve the bands past.
With special guests including the Mayor of Sandbach, Martin Forster and members of the public there was an opportunity to see and exhibition of artefacts donated to the band for its archive, various cups and trophies plus a medal collection loaned by Allan Littlemore.
The evening included interval music from the 78 collections of the band digitally remastered for the archive.
Interval food was also provided by Daniel Williams of Godfrey Williams and Son.
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24 May 2018
SANDBACH MARKET HALL RENOVATIONS BEGIN
After many years of discussions, the improvements to the Sandbach Market Hall have begun. A disastrous scheme and questionnaire in May 2016 to put in a floor above the market stalls for office space for the Town Council was put to rest with the public and stall holders getting together to put forward plans for an improved look to the market to increase footfall which were approved by Sandbach Town Council with a set of designs being submitted in October 2017 by architects David Trowler Associates and a presentation to the public in the Town Hall by Councillors.
Work started on the outside of the building during the beginning of May with Scaffolding being placed inside the Market Hall on the 20 May 2018 allowing work to start painting the ceiling and alter the electrics above the stalls.
Repairs to the tiled flooring took place from the 16 – 18 May 2018, with Baby Changing facilities and Toilet improvements being made outside the main hall.
Alterations to the Market will continue from the 7 May 2018 to the 5 July 2018 (44 Days) with the instillation of new glass canopies on top of the side stalls from the 16th June to the 5th July 2018, New signage will be added from the 2nd to the 4th July 2018 and the lobbies next to the doors will be improved between the 4th to the 29th June 2018 with new picture shutters being added to the side stalls that will include scenes of old Sandbach supplied by local historians.
The Indoor Market will be closed on the 21st and 23rd June 2018 with stalls moving outside on these days to continue trading during the period of closure but will also be open during the rest of the period on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Work should be completed with a hand over hopefully on the 6 – 7 July 2018 and then a new era will begin for this historic building.
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26 July 2018
OFFICIAL OPENING AFTER CONTROVERSIAL PLANS FOR TOWN HALL
In March 2016, the Sandbach Town Council had proposed a redevelopment of the Market Hall with the instillation of a second floor which would house the offices of the Council that would then move from the Literary Institute. The plans involved spending vast sums of money to alter the fabric of the GRADE 2 listed building with the proposed closure of the area for a number of months while building work took place.
Market stall holders and members of the public were up in arms about the proposals and meetings were held with heated discussions until a compromise was made that only an improvement of the building and stalls would be made along with the dropping of the idea for a second floor and offices.
Plans were put forward for the improved look to the market in October 2017 by architects David Trowler Associates and work started on the outside of the building during the beginning of May with Scaffolding being placed inside the Market Hall on the 20 May 2018, allowing work to start painting the ceiling and to alter the electrics above the stalls. Repairs to the tiled flooring took place from the 16 – 18 May 2018, with Baby Changing facilities and Toilet improvements being made outside the main hall as the Market continued to trade from the 7 May 2018 to the 5 July 2018 (44 Days). A new glass canopy on top of the side stalls was installed from the 16th June to the 5th July 2018. New signage added from the 2nd to the 4th July 2018 and the lobbies next to the doors were improved between the 4th to the 29th June 2018 with new picture shutters being added to the side stalls that included scenes of old Sandbach supplied by local historians, from the Minshull family archive. Work was completed with a hand over between the 6 – 7 July 2018 and a new era began for this historic building.
On Thursday the 26 July 2018, Sandbach Town Council held the official opening of the renovated Market Hall at 2pm with various events taking place on the following Thursdays to help promote the new building improvements.
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26 July 2018
SANDBACH MARKET HALL OFFICIALLY OPENED
Improvements to the Sandbach Market Hall have finished after work started at the end of May to make the building into something that the people of Sandbach could be proud of and hopefully improve the footfall of the market to bring back the numbers of visitors it used to enjoy. The added publicity surrounding the renovations have certainly helped with the shoppers visiting the market and with a plan that includes special events it looks as though the market is starting to get back on its feet.
Culminating in an opening ceremony on the 26 July 2018, when Sandbach Mayor Richard Hovey cut the green ribbon, a colour that matches the paintwork of the new look stalls around the sides of the hall, the event attracted a large crowd of people connected to and interested in the final results.
The day also included a visit from “Punch and Judy” (Ian Davis from Staffordshire), Elsa (Frozen Character) and Spiderman (Crime Fighter) along with street magician Ian, who all entertained the children who were off from school and the adults coming to the market.
Architects David Trowler Associates oversaw the painting of the ceiling, new electrics, lighting above each stall new facades for the stalls, signage and new sliding doors which in winter will keep the building a lot warmer than it has been in the past. Councillors and Staff at Sandbach Town Council have also kept a close eye on the project which has been a collaboration between them and the Market traders who wanted the improvements to the Market to help restore it back to the vibrant facility it once was for the town.
Each of the shutters on the stalls has a picture from Sandbach’s Past supplied by the Minshull Archive. Managed by Stephen Minshull who has taken over his father’s archive of pictures of the town the archive consists of images taken from old postcards and photographs (On Slides) that his father John Minshull captured of the streets and shops of the town from the 1960’s until his death 20 years ago in 1998. Stephen has digitised the archive of about 6,000 images and picked the best ones that reflected the town’s history along with a journey from the Wheat Sheaf down Hightown and around the town via its historic buildings, with the foyer shops decorated with images from the town’s former industries of Fodens, ERF and the Silk Mills. Stephen then had to upgrade the images from 35mm film to a very high quality digital image that could be enlarged to fill the shutters. These were then made into plastic transfers which were added to the shutters and can now be seen when the market closes or on dates when the hall is open for other events like the record and craft fairs.
A few minor alterations will finish off the project, which most people who saw it on the opening day and surrounding market days says is a great improvement and will be an asset to the town.
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18 August 2018
STORMTROOPERS INVADE SANDBACH MUCH TO THE DELIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS
The latest event to draw the public to see the new look Market Hall in Sandbach on Saturday the 18 August 2018, included an invasion of the town by Imperial Stormtroopers from the Star Wars film series, much to the delight of the inhabitants. I’m not sure who was more excited the young children or the older adults who all wanted to have their pictures taken with the armoured men and other characters from the films.
Members of the ‘Staffs Imperial Stormtroopers’, are a non-profit-making group who dress up in characters from the film to take part in various events including this weekend when they were raising funds for the Donna Louise Trust (Children’s Hospice in Stoke on Trent),a charity close to their hearts and for whom they recently attended a ‘Superheroes Picnic’, at Dorfold Park near Nantwich. Mainly publicising the film series, they have been in great demand at Comic Conventions like the Nantwich Comic Con on the 9 June 2018 and at the opening screening of the new films including “Solo: A Star Wars Story” at Cineworld in Stoke on Trent.
On a sunny day in Sandbach their planned 60 minutes soon turned into a three hour walk around the town posing for pictures at every opportunity allowing children and adults to play with their blasters and pose in true Star Wars style with everyone knowing exactly what to do.
John Beddows of Sandbach Market said that “It was a fab day in Sandbach, the team were brilliant and made it a really great day. You can tell they love what they do especially with the children. There will be another invite to Sandbach very soon”.
The next events at Sandbach Market were a ‘Face Painting Event’ on Thursday the 23 August and a ‘Cheshire Police and Sandbach Air Cadets’ event plus extras on the 30 August.
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18 August 2018
AUTHORS SIGNING EVENT AT TOWN HALL
Eleven writers attended an author signing event in Sandbach on Saturday the 18 August 2018.
This was the 3rd event held at Sandbach Town Hall and organised by Sandbach Town Hall’s Conference and events officer, Laura Surgenor (Writer Elizabeth Morgan) who was the only face from the previous events to appear this year.
Like the previous occasions it was a great opportunity to talk to local writers and to find out about the wide variety of subjects covered in the new self-publishing world.
Writers came from all over the North West including our own home town.
Sarah Lysaght who has lived in Sandbach for over 20 years is the writer of three books, “37 Downing Street” which is based on her own family tree and was published in 2012 is about a bricklayer turned fishmonger in Farnham and chronicles the family from the time of Queen Victoria to the 1930’s through tragedy and pain with and unexpected ending. Based on her own family history, which Sarah has been researching for the last 20 years the saga continues into her second book “Loyalty on the Home Sweet Home Front” which looks at the life of George who in 1944 is suddenly taken ill and starts to reminisce about his life including his time in the Boar War and the Army Canteen as a NAFFI inspector.
Sarah’s third book “The Manchester Bradshaw’s” is another book based on family history but this time it is her husband’s family connection that is featured with over five generations of exceptional men she explores their lives mixes with a hint of fiction that is seen in all her novels.
Published and available on Amazon this was the first time Sarah had been involved with a publicity event for her books which she wrote as a hobby rather than as a commercial undertaking and through word of mouth has managed to gain a good recommendation with between 4 and 5 stars on Amazon.
Susi Osborne lives in Cheshire with her Scottish husband and actress daughter. This former library assistant has been writing for about 12 years and writes contemporary fiction starting with “The Ripples of Life” (2008), “Grace and Disgrace” and “Secrets, Lies and Butterflies” (2013) which are all linked together and are about family dramas with plenty of humour. Her forth book “Angelica Stone” (2017) is very much a book about the lives of the homeless and mental illness and was researched by Susi meeting those without a home on the streets as well as her experience with her own mothers Alzheimer’s and the incidents she had looking after her. Looking after her mother also gave Susi the opportunity to start writing as she had time to sit down and think as well as it being a time when her children had left home so she could spend a couple of hours a day writing her novels without being disturbed.
(Nigel) N J Cartner, writes about a trip to Las Vegas, when the main character Ricky Lever comes to a crossroads in his life. “Lost in Manchester found in Vegas” shows how sin city can influence a man in life after he has split from his girlfriend and lost his job at the same time with this theme planned to continue in N J Cartners next instalment which he is writing at the moment. Having written reviews for fanzines and some community radio experience, Nigel decided it was time for his first novel and sat down to write about his experience in the USA with added musical references including songs that have played a big part in his life and the back of the book he has compiled a discography of the music featured in the book itself so you can play the tunes as you read the book to give it a film like quality which has influenced his writing.
K Spencer has three books out with the central character of Canyon Devils MCand who appears in “Angel” (2016), Princess (2017) and the latest instalment “Sparky’s Treasure” which was published on the 8 August 2018.
Other authors at the event were Lucy Felthouse (Erotic Romantic novels), Scribbelious (various books), Paul Bernardi (Historic Suspense Novels, “To the Devil his Due” and “Thurkill’s Revenge”), (Tracy) T N Traynor (Mystical Quest Novel Series, “Oracle’s Quest”, (Charlotte) C A Keith (Ghostly Writes Anthology), Claire Plaisted (Female secret investigator and also featured in the Ghostly Writes Anthology of short stories), and Elizabeth Morgan (Urban Fantasy and Erotic Horror).
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2 December 2018
POP MEMORABILIA ON DISPLAY AT SANDBACH TOWN HALL
Sandbach was privileged to have an exhibition of memorabilia connected to two of what will be the biggest grossing films of 2018 and 2019, the Queen film “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the new Elton John movie, “Rocket man” which is to be released in May 2019. Chris Hewitt who lives in the Northwich area has the biggest collection of studio equipment and tour memorabilia in the Country and was asked by John Beddows who runs the monthly record fairs in the Market Hall to bring some of his private museum to Sandbach to show to visitors of the Record Fair as well as interested enthusiasts of the artists, The Beatles, David Bowie and Queen, all of whom had used bits of the equipment on display at the 2 December fair.
Chris’s interest in music started on Oldham Market when he purchased records from a stall there. He then went on to act as a transporter for equipment and started to work on gigs with the “Strawbs”, “Mr Fox” and others with Mick Spratt who was in charge of setting up sound systems.
After a brief time in London he met a man from Stoke on Trent who offered him a job mixing live for “East of Eden” and worked with “Ian Dury” and Lemmy from Hawkwind and Motorhead who was born in Stoke on Trent and used to borrow a lot of equipment, with one of Chris’s first jobs being to retrieve items from the rock star.
In 1972, Chris helped set up the Rochdale Festival followed by working with a group called “Tractor” who rehearsed from 1968 in a building at 58, Market Street, Heywood which is where they went on to set up a studio. Between 1973 and 1976 the building became the “Tractor Sound Studio”, which was partly funded by the late John Peel and was run by Chris Hewitt with Steve Clayton, Jim Milne and Alan Burgess.
Later Chris would open his own studio in Rochdale along with Peter Hook from “Joy Division” and “New Order”.
Peter Hook is also responsible for this collection as in 2010 Chris was asked to help put together a recreation of an old Joy Division gig for an exhibition. As he searched for an amp that could have been used at the time by the band he discovered one in America, which he later found out had belonged to George Harrison.
Having kept his own equipment from the 1970’s this became the seed of the collection he has today.
Equipment on display in Sandbach included a mixer and speakers from the Beatles time in the Abbey Road Studio. These items were acquired separately by Chris but all feature on the same picture which was displayed next to the exhibit. Another Beatles connected item was the sound compressor from John Lennon’s “Ascot Sound Studio” at his Tettenhurst Park residence which was sold in an auction of items after Ringo Star had acquired the house and studio from John when he moved to America and Ringo was selling off items he didn’t want to keep when he eventually sold the house. The compressor was used by John when he made his second solo album “Imagine” and was seen recently on television in documentary footage filmed during the recording of the record.
With such a great collection it is no wonder that Chris is called upon to supply film and television companies with authentic equipment for productions. Unfortunately, once Chris has set up the equipment on site he is then not allowed to watch the filming of the scenes and only discovers what they had done when he receives a picture from the set or sees the finished results.
A mixer used in the Bohemian Rhapsody film’s “Live Aid” sequence was on display in the foyer of the record fair at the Market Hall. David Bowie and guitarist Mick Ronson were represented by a rehearsal mixer they used while putting together the “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” album. Pink Floyd plus Emerson, Lake and Palmer, were also featured in the exhibition at Sandbach with microphones, speakers, mixers and various items from studio’s and stages around the world taking up the Town Hall upstairs.
For those who have an interest in the history of Pop Music this was a great opportunity to get close to iconic pieces of equipment.
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8 March 2019
STRICTLY FLOWERS AT TOWN HALL
On the 8 March 2019, the Elworth Flower Club held its second “Strictly Flowers and Dance” event at Sandbach Town Hall. The event in aid of Cancer Research raised a large sum of money for the charity and fatured flower arrangers Mark Entwistle and Jacqui Owen along with dancers Mark and Kay Farrugia, Andrew and Carol Middleton, Helen Morris and her team from Syncronicity Dance. Organised by Bernard Preston with help from his wife Irene and members of the flower club the event was a great success with some wonderful displays of arrangements on stage and a variety of dancing worthy of the original Come Dancing.
Formed in 1957 they first met at the School Hall of Elworth Church of England Primary School but moved to Bradwall Village Hall in the 1990’s (Pre 1996).
20 June 1997 Sandbach Chronicle Page 21
The Elworth Flower club presented a cheque to The Sandbach Talking Newspaper and Reg Spencer of Hospital Radio for £100 after their annual Flower demonstration at Sandbach Town Hall.
Tues 29 Apr 1997 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall
(1st with Stewart Green on Sound)
Tues 9 Dec 2003 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall
Tues 7 Dec 2004 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
Mon 5 Dec 2005 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Dawn Weaver
Mon 4 Dec 2006 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Joan Hardwick with Colin Hardwick
Tues 4 Sept 2007 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY EVENT
at Sandbach Town Hall.
Music and Flowers - With Patti Dawson and Kate Russell
And music by young performers called Fire and Singer Arthur Talbot
Tues 4 Dec 2007 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Neil Whittaker
Tues 9 Dec 2008 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Lois Gill and the Saxon Singers
Tues 8 Dec 2009 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Dawn Weaver and th Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 7 Dec 2010 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Don Billington and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 6 Dec 2011 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Kathleen Williams and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 11 Dec 2012 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Beryl Cotton and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 10 Dec 2013 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Wesley Centre (TOWN HALL CLOSED).
With Anthony Williams and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 9 Dec 2014 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Jonathon Mosley and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 8 Dec 2015 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Diane Fair with Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 6 Dec 2016 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Neil Whittakar with Sandbach Ladies Choir
Fri 10 Mar 2017 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
Demonstration “Strictly Flowers”
With Arthur McDonald, Mark Entwistle with Dancers Helen and Matt
Tues 5 Dec 2017 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Laura Leong and Sandbach High School Choir
Tues 4 Dec 2018 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Jonathon Moseley and Sandbach High School Choir
Fri 8 Mar 2019 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
Demonstration “STRICTLY FLOWERS AND DANCE”
With Mark Entwistle and Jacqui Owen (Salsa Dancers)
In Aid of Sandbach Cancer Research UK Committee
10 Dec 2019 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Mark Entwistle and Sandbach High School Chamber Choir
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25 May 2019
MARVEL COMIC CHARACTERS COME TO SANDBACH
With Superhero’s from Spiderman to the latest Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers there had been an increase in popularity of these characters both on the small screen and on the large cinema screen with children of all ages wanting to don the costume and appear with their favourite hero. Sandbach Indoor Market is staging a number of events over the year to increase awareness of what it has to offer and on Saturday the 25 May 2019 they invited some of these Superheroes and Villains to the town to be photographed with members of the public or for them to shake the hands of the their favourite character, which for some was a bit much as they became shy in the presence of Superman or Captain America.
Two of those taking part were Andy Ford and Natalie Orry (Six Towns Radio) who are based in Stoke on Trent and are part of the Staffs Imperial Stormtroopers whodress as Star Wars, Marvel, DC and Power Rangers characters to appear at events where they entertain the public and raise money for local charities including a collection for the “Dougie Mac”, which was the charity they were collecting for as they wandered around Sandbach Town Hall and the Indoor Market on Saturday. The group have also raised money for the Peter Pan Centre, Air Ambulance, the Donna Louise Trust and they have recently run the Donna Louise Five K (Kilometres) Fun Run at Trentham Gardens in costumes.
The days event was organised by Record Stall holder and new Sandbach Town Councillor, John Beddows who arranged for the group to make their third visit to the townon Saturday as they had previously turned up as Stormtroopers from Star Wars earlier in the year and in August 2018. Like their previous visits they were very popular with the children of South Cheshire with visitors coming from Alsager and Crewe among those wanting pictures with their favourite comic book heroes. Many of the children dressed up as Marvel characters themselves with one young lady from Lancashire dressing as the new Wonder Woman while others donned Spiderman suits and rival Batman (DC Comics).
Andy also appears as a Stormtrooper, Captain America, Power Ranger and will soon be seen as a Ghostbuster.
Natalie also has a number of characters including Princess Leia (Star Wars), Bat Girl, Pink Ranger and Lady Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy) with costumes either manufactured by the wearer from off the shelf clothing or from a kit with parts sourced from various suppliers which gives a better-quality costume tofit the person. Andy said that his stormtrooper costume took three months to put together to make sure the strapping was fitted properly for himself and didn’t leave him bleeding as the hard-plastic suit cuts into him. With costumes sometimes costing about £950 to put together the group assured us that they didn’t take any payments for appearances and all the collection money went to the charity concerned.
Characters who appeared at Sandbach included Captain Marvel (Fiona), Bucky Barnes (Andy), Black Widow (Nat / Natalie), Magneto (Seb), Spiderman (Colin), Captain America (Andy Ford) and Lady Gamora (Natalie Orry)
Marvel Comics started on the 12 January 1939 as Timely Comics and then on the 16 April 1947 it was renamed Magazine Management with the titles changing to Atlas Comics. The company became Marvel Comics on the 19 February 1961 and was acquired by the Walt Disney Company on the 31 August 2009 which has now seen an increase in the amount of films featuring the characters created by the late Stan Lee (Died on the 12 November 2018) who has appeared like Alfred Hitchcock in most, if not all the TV Series and films connected to his creations. Other superheroes and villains from the comics were co-created by Steve Ditko (Spiderman) and Jack Kirby (The Hulk) who have drawn and produced thousands of publications with stories that include hundreds of characters that span what is now known as the Marvel Universe including the Fantastic Four, X Men, Agents of Shield, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman (August 1962) Agent Carter / Captain America (March 1941), Thor, Black Panther and Deadpool with their alter egos and arch nemesis.
With the success of Saturdays event I am sure the Staffs Imperial Stormtroopers Inc. will be back soon with more characters to raise funds for charity and help promote Sandbach Indoor Market which is open on Thursdays and Saturdays with some Fridays during the year as well as special events on Wednesdays and Sundays in the Market area.
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15 November 2019
Sandbach Town Council for many years has put on a Christmas Market around the town and also within the Market Hall and Town Hall Ballroom. Godfrey Williams and Son staged a Taste of Christmas event each year to publicise its producers and now a local group from the Rugby Club caterers staged the first of what they hoped would be a regular event of “A Taste of Sandbach”with caterers from the various restaurants bringing a taste of what they produce to the Market Hall for an alfresco event.
6 December 2019
The annual Christmas Market.
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In March 2020 like so many venues around the country the Town Hall was closed due to the Coronavirus / Covid 19 pandemic and would not open to events including its 130th Anniversary.
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EVENTS AT THE TOWN HALL
Bowling (Indoor)
Dancing Classes
Drama Classes
Elworth Flower Club Christmas Demonstration.
Royal British Legion Annual Dance
Sandbach Voices
Wedding Fair
Wedding Venue
BBC BROADCAST ANY QUESTIONS “LIVE”
On the 8 July 2016 the BBC Political Debate show on Radio 4, “ANY QUESTIONS” broadcast live from Sandbach Town Hall with Jonathan Dimbleby in the chair.
Due to be at a town in Northern Ireland the producers had a change of mind when the political situation in Northern Ireland at this moment in time made it difficult to talk about subjects that week so the “Any Questions” producers at BBC Radio 4 decided a new venue should be found to host the live programme on the 8 July 2016. Sandbach Town Hall was the perfect venue for the broadcast and Lisa Jenkinson the producer of the programme set about organising the event.
Jonathan Dimbleby as usual was in the chairman’s seat with Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, Conservative Dominic Grieve, Labours Gisela Stuart and Daily Telegraph columnist Liam Hagan on the panel.
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5 November 2016
WRITERS EVENT
After the departure of Richard Husdan, a new Conference and Events Officer was appointed. Laura Surgenor who was also known as writer Elizabeth Morgan continued to stage events and after the success of the arts week writers’ event, she arranged for a few of her fellow writers to come to Sandbach for an event where the people of the town could talk to 21 authors from the area and beyond.
Dianna Hardy probably came the furthest as she lives in Havant, South Hampshire, with most of the writers living within a 20-mile radius of Sandbach Town Centre including Catherine Green from Middlewich, Matt Clarke who brought a series of Comic books he has drawn and written, Jane Cooper on the other hand brought a children’s book called “The Dragon in the Drain” and Winterley writer John Paul Goss talked about, “The King if Ithaca” based in Serbia. Amazon best-selling author Caroline James brought her book “Coffee Tea, The Caribbean and me” and its sequel to the event on the 5 November 2016. Cover model Martin Nelson was also available to have his picture taken for a donation in aid of Charity.
The event was also held on Saturday the 23 September 2017, with authors Nikki Ashton, C.A. Bell, Jane Cooper, P R Ellis, Scarlet Flame, Catherine Green, Liz Hedgecock, Angela Marie James, Glen Martin James, Lizzie James, R J F Holland, Victoria Johns, M L Kacy, D A Lascelles, Elizabeth Morgan, Laura Morgan, Claire Plaisted, Bella Sattarra, R A Smith, T L Wainwright and Jim Webster.
A third event was held on the 18 August 2018 with writers Sarah Lysaght (“37 Downing Street” / “Loyalty on the Home Sweet Home Front” / “The Manchester Bradshaw’s”). Susi Osborne (“The Ripples of Life” (2008), “Grace and Disgrace” and “Secrets, Lies and Butterflies” (2013)) along with (Nigel) N J Cartner, (“Lost in Manchester found in Vegas”). K Spencer (“Angel” (2016), Princess (2017)). Lucy Felthouse (Erotic Romantic novels), Scribbelious (various books), Paul Bernardi (Historic Suspense Novels, “To the Devil his Due” and “Thurkill’s Revenge”), (Tracy) T N Traynor (Mystical Quest Novel Series, “Oracle’s Quest”, (Charlotte) C A Keith (Ghostly Writes Anthology), Claire Plaisted (Female secret investigator and also featured in the Ghostly Writes Anthology of short stories), and Elizabeth Morgan (Urban Fantasy and Erotic Horror).
(Richard would return in another role within the Council)
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19 November 2016
Royal British Legion Dance with the Roy Peters Sound.
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27 January 2017
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY ON BBC RADIO STOKE
Cheshire East has celebrated Holocaust Memorial Day since 2013 and in 2014, the first event had taken part at the town hall. On the 27 January 2017, Cheshire East Council invited members of the public and BBC Radio Stoke along to help mark the event.
The event was opened by Cheshire East Mayor Olivia Hunter who gave a brief introduction to the reasons for the Memorial Day before introducing Sandbach Town Council Mayor Keith Haines who read out some accounts from Jews who had survived the holocaust.
Retired Dentist and Survivor from Austria, Peter Kurer then spoke about the debt that he owed to the Quakers who during the Second World War petitioned parliament to allow the children of Jewish parents to come to Britain before Hitler imposed his Anti-Jewish laws. They also helped to raise funds for the £50’s needed to bring them into the country and adoption facilities in what is known as the Kinder Transport. Nine members of Peter’s family were saved in this way and he has championed the work of the Quakers ever since. His inspirational talk was followed by a Soprano Cornet performance of “On with the Motley” by Sandbach School pupil William Dakin.
Chief Executive of Cheshire East, Mike Suarez spoke about “How Life Can Go On after the Holocaust”, before the congregation were invited to light a candle in remembrance followed by the Rev Thomas Shepherd who gave a reading, prayer and period of silence to end the event.
The event was recorded by BBC Radio Stoke for broadcast in an edited format on the following Sunday during their, “In Praise of God” slot.
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18 February 2017
MAYORS BALL TURNS INTO VARIETY SHOW AND BUFFET
Sandbach Mayor Keith Haines decided to change the traditional Mayor’s Ball into something that reflects his own life and interests. This also included asking his old friend, Crewe born comedian Don Reid who lived and worked for many years in Sandbach to act as MC for the evening, during which he reflected on his time in the town including working in the old Gas Showroom on Crewe Road. Having been in a singing trio of Eric Bailey, Keith Haines and Don Reid it was one night when the Guitar and PA Amp broke down that Don decided to start telling jokes to the audience to fill the time while Keith fixed the equipment starting him on the road to a new job that takes him round the world telling jokes on Cruises, in clubs and even on TV. During the event at the Town Hall on the 18 February 2016 all three were reunited for the first time in many years with Don and Keith raising funds for the Mayor’s Charity along with singing duo “Bakerfield” and Rockabilly trio “VaVoom” who provided the after-buffet entertainment at which Mayor’s from Cheshire East, Middlewich, Congleton, Knutsford and Macclesfield danced the night away with moves that put the public of Sandbach to shame. Before the dancing there was a raffle and auction where a Stoke City, Shirt was sold for over £70 helping the fund towards local Youth Charities and the Stepping Hill Hospital.
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12 March 2017
WEDDING FAIR AT TOWN HALL
Sandbach held another wedding fair at the Town Hall with various representatives showing different aspects of what is needed for a wedding. Stalls included photographers, flowers, makeup and of course dresses and suits.
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15 April 2017
CARNEY ACADEMY OPEN DAY FOR YOUNG PERFORMERS
Freelance TV Director Ruth Carney brought her experience of the entertainment world to Sandbach with her “Carney Academy” at the Town Hall. Ruth and three experienced tutors held an open day at the venue on the 15 April 2017 for prospective students who would like to lean about acting, dancing and singing.
Starting on May 6th for youngsters between the ages of 4 and 19 Ruth hopes to have lessons on a weekly basis which Richard Husdan of the Town Hall is looking forward to staging in the multi-purpose venue.
Originally from Talk Pitts in Staffordshire, Ruth then went to Sheffield where she was the Associate Director of the Theatres there and now has moved back to Sandbach with her husband and has decided to set up a school in the town having previously started a group in Sheffield seven years ago and she hopes for the same success in Sandbach that she had originally.
Ruth has teachers from Uttoxeter, Middlewich and Stockport and at the open day attracted people from Congleton, Crewe, Middlewich, Sandbach and has chosen the Town Hall to house the event as it is central to the South Cheshire area and also the town with easy access for students. The course is designed for amateur and hopeful professionals who would like to get into, “The Business” and with Ruth and her teachers experience they can be guided into this world of entertainment, something she herself found difficult herself as her parents didn’t have that background to tell her what to do.
Classes will start on Saturdays at 9am to 10am for 4-7 Year Olds. 10am to 1pm for 8-11 Year Olds / 12- 14 Year Olds / 15- 19 Year Olds with a chance to do all three disciplines each week.
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29 April 2017
STEAM PUNK COMES TO SANDBACH
With successful festivals in Crewe and around the Country, “Steam Punk” has come to Sandbach for a successful market and show in the town. Held on the 29th and 30th April 2017 the Market was laid out in the Town Hall with about twenty stalls selling items with a slightly different style from Cybermen heads to Si-fi guns (Not working), walking sticks, Victorian clothing and items made out of scrap metal.
David Smith one of the organisers of the festival explained that Steam Punk was a wide-ranging genre loosely based on Victorian Science Fiction and Fantasy, like the books of H G Wells and Jules Verne and is an excuse to dress up and have fun. The term was coined 30 years ago but was preceded by the style which was based on an offshoot of Victorian re-enactment and Goth clothes with the twist of “What the Victorian Era Might have been like had it continued and had the technology stayed in that era with things powered by Steam and clockwork mechanisms”. Unlike re-enactment the dress code is not that strict and so anything is acceptable with people taking ideas from each other and from films like ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ or Will Smith’s ‘Wild, Wild West’ which both feature the clothing of the style. Waistcoats, Pocket Watches, Canes and Goggles seem popular with the gentlemen while Victorian clothing and corsets is a feature for the ladies. The Goggles seem to dominate the style as there is an obsession with the thought of going to the moon or general travel in an airship which is featured in a lot of the modern novels in the Steam Punk range.
A concert at St Mary’s Church Hall on the Saturday Evening included the Town Jester of Conway as MC with headline act, ‘Victor and the Bully’ (Jolly Dance Tunes with a Macabre theme) who after Sandbach performed at the Steam Punk World Fair in Piscataway, New Jersey in the USA the biggest festival of its kind.
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21 May 2017
YOUTH MARKET AT SANDBACH TOWN HALL
An overwhelming opinion at a consultation of what to do with the town hall in Sandbach was to make more use if the space on all seven days. Town Hall staff staged a variety of events since then on a Sunday and on the 21 Mar 2017, there was a Youth Market in the Market Hall showing off the talent and entrepreneurial skills of the younger generation. Stall holders at the event were Hayley Emma Art who displayed paintings of well-known people as well as her Henna business, Tomos Price-Jones sold his computer games, George Smith from Fleetwood came down to Sandbach with his father as he does every Saturday to sell eggs on the Market. Matt Clarke sold his own science fiction books and Christian Turner showed off pictures he had painted with views of Sandbach among his work. Laura Surgenor (Writer Elizabeth Morgan) from the town hall kept an eye on the event along with selling her books and jewellery next to Katherine Buckley’s food, drink and small notices with various sayings on them including, “There is always time for tea, and there is always room for cake”. There was in Sandbach Town Hall, time for the youth and room to encourage them to start their own business.
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24 June 2017
HARRY POTTER CELEBRATES 20 YEARS
Yes, it was 20 years since the first book in the Harry Potter Series reached the shelves of the nation and on Saturday the 24 June 2017, Sandbach celebrated this milestone with a party at the Town Hall hosted by Laura Surgenor the conference and events officer at Sandbach Town Council. With the hall divided into the various houses of Hogwarts School there was a Harry Potter Quiz, food and all the children dressed up as characters from the film with most appearing as Harry Potter himself and at least one as Voldemort. It was also such an exciting event that one child celebrated his birthday at the town hall surrounded by his friends as they watched the first instalment of the film series “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” on the big screen.
The first book was released on the 26 June 1997 and the series of novels have since sold over 500 million copies in 73 different languages by 2013.
In 1990, J K Rowling was travelling on a four-hour delayed train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry Potter came into her head. The writer has never said which station she was close to when the idea came to her but one of those could have been Sandbach or Crewe.
In 1995 the first book was finished and was sent off to various publishers who rejected the book, however the second agent (Christopher Little) to receive the first instalment offered to represent J K Rowling and offered the book to Bloomsbury who took up the option for the series and the rest is history.
In 1998, J K Rowling sold the rights to Warner Brothers to make the stories into films with the first episode being released on the 14 November 2001 with Daniel Radcliffe as Harry.
The seventh and final book in the series “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was published on the 21 July 2007, selling 11 million copies in the first 24 hours around the world. This was not however the end of the stories as a play based on an idea by JK was staged in 2016 at the Palace Theatre, London and called “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”. It was set 19 years after the final book’s last chapter and a book based on the play was released making nine stories about Harry Potter.
Costumes, memorabilia, books about the series, DVD’s, Blue Ray, Playstation games, models, Lego and the film experience by Warner Brothers continue to keep interest in Harry Potter going hopefully for another 20 years.
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1 September 2017
MOONLIGHT MARKET
Sandbach held its first Moonlight Market on the 1st September 2017. A joint venture between the Town Council and traders from the Indoor Market the event attracted hundreds of people who enjoyed a variety of food stalls along with music by Eddie Ogle who stepped in at the last minute to busk at the event at the back of the town hall. Inside the hall itself regular traders were joined by a mixture of stalls selling crafts, food and other items.
The moon itself could be seen in the twilight evening as the sun set over the town as traders packed away at 8pm having enjoyed a lot of interest in this event which started at 5pm in the afternoon.
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23 September 2017
AUTHOR SIGNING EVENT ANOTHER SUCCESS
On the 23 September 2017, the second ‘Author Signing Event’ at Sandbach Town Hall was attended by more visitors than last year’s inaugural event run by Laura Surgenor (Writer Elizabeth Morgan) the conference and events manager of Sandbach Town Council. Some of the twenty-one writers had returned to Sandbach after last year’s event. This year’s authors attending the event were, Nikki Ashton, C.A. Bell, Jane Cooper, P R Ellis, Scarlet Flame, Catherine Green, Liz Hedgecock, Angela Marie James, Glen Martin James, Lizzie James, R J F Holland, Victoria Johns, M L Kacy, D A Lascelles, Elizabeth Morgan, Laura Morgan, Claire Plaisted, Bella Sattarra, R A Smith, T L Wainwright and Jim Webster.
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13 November 2017
TOWN HALL TURNS PURPLE
Sandbach Town Hall turned Purple on the 13 November 2017 in aid of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month as part of a Nation campaign to bring the cancer to be noticed via the lighting up of a number of prominent buildings around the Country with Crewe’s Municipal Building was also being lit up for the awareness month. Local fundraising organiser Jill Murray persuaded Sandbach Town Council to put filters on their lights to change its colour and thanked the Council and Staff at the Town Hall for making the changes which were on display until the 30 November 2017 and made a welcome addition to the Sandbach Christmas Lights from the 25 November.
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23 November 2017
MARKET HALL CONSULTATION FOR PLANS
Sandbach Town Council consulted with Market Traders and interested bodies as to what to do with the indoor market after aborted plans to put in a second floor were unanimously condemned by the public.
On Monday the 20th November 2017 Councillors were given information about the proposals which were then put to the public in two consultation events at the Town Hall on the following Wednesday and Thursday.
David Trowler Associates have drawn up some plans with colour schemes in Mallard or Chalke Green which proposed that the current market stalls should be refitted with more solid bases that would be easier to clean. The side stalls will also be refitted with shutters that have images on them associated with Sandbach, possibly from old postcards and pictures so the hall continues to have something on the walls even if the stalls are not open for other events. The circular windows along the walls will be fitted with clear glass to let in more light and will be illuminated with bulbs that can change colour to make them a feature at night. New signage on the outside will be illuminated with traders in the side stalls having their names above their pitch that will tell customers the stall holders name and business.
LED lighting will be used to make the building more economic while the outside toilets will be altered to make way for storage space for the moveable stalls used on the Saturday Outside Market and better Baby Changing facilities in the disabled and ladies’ toilets will be made more available. The roof itself will be changed to a textured glass without wires which should let in more light that the current glass giving it a more spacious look.
Alterations will also be made to the exits with automatic hinged doors opening into a small lobby which should stop the heat escaping from the building.
The exterior and interior brickwork will also be looked at with running repairs to the structure of the building at a cost of 46,000 that would have had to be paid for even if the scheme was not adopted as bricks and other parts of the building are already in need of repair.
The total cost of the proposed scheme will be £175,000 including VAT and the repair costs, according to Sandbach Town Council and Mayor Martin Forster who was one of a number of Councillors who explained the proposals to Stall Holders and the public at the consultation meetings.
The Council hope these proposals will breathe back life into the market and make the facilities more available for events from Monday to Sunday inclusive.
Proposed dates for the alterations started with the proposals and on the 27 November and continued with consultations with planners and conservationists. Next would be asking for tenders to be put in for the awarding of the contract on the 15th January 2018 and a proposed starting date for work in February 2018 and a proposed finishing date in April. Those attending the exhibitions seemed to support the scheme with some minor alterations and additions put forward, which Councillors agreed to look into.
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26 January 2018
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE
Cheshire East Council held its annual Holocaust Memorial Day Service on Friday the 26 January 2018 a day earlier than the actual Holocaust Memorial Day so Council workers, Mayors from around the area and children from three East Cheshire Schools could take part in the days events.
The proceedings were presented by the Mayor of Cheshire East Cllr Arthur Moran who said that one of the first to liberate a concentration camp was a tank driver from Crewe (John Cole who was in the first tank to liberate the Bergen-Bensen Camp). Cllr Moran then introduced Sandbach Mayor Martin Forster who read various poems about the Holocaust followed by a clarinet solo by Sandbach School pupil, Mark Wheeler who played the theme to Schindler’s List (John Williams). Music was also provided by the Knutsford Academy 6th Form Vocal Group who sang two beautiful versions of the songs ‘Tears in Heaven’ (Eric Clapton) and John Lennon’s, ‘Imagine’.
Now in its fifth year the service has for the last two years included the introduction of memories by people caught up in the events of the Holocaust. Last year retired dentist and survivor from Austria, Peter Kurer spoke about the debt that he owed to the Quakers who had petitioned parliament to allow the children of Jewish parents to come to England thus saving nine members of his family. This year it was the turn of sisters Gisela Feldman and Sonia Sternberg who with their mother managed to get on the ship the St Louis which set sail on the 13 May 1939, with 937 Jews and travelled from Hamburg to Cuba, but were turned away as Visas issued to the Polish / German Jews were withdrawn before they arrived and so they were eventually turned back only to land in London where they spent the rest of the war.
Mark Palethorpe from Cheshire East invited the audience to hold a two-minute silence after which the congregation were asked to light candles for those who hadn’t survived the Holocaust followed by prayers from the vicar of St Mary’s, Sandbach the Rev. Thomas Shepard.
Giesla and Sonia recounted their lives in Germany just before leaving as well as the journey to a new life.
Giesla was born in 1923 of Polish parents with the family moving to Germany where she and her younger sister were the only Jewish girls in their school, a place without discrimination where they enjoyed the usual school life enjoying making friends, invitations to birthday parties as well as taking part in games with the other students. When Hitler came into power in German after he became Chancellor in January 1933 making himself the leader of a one-party country there were marches in the street on the 1st May with workers on one side and the SS Marching on the opposite side of the road. As things progressed there were a number of people shot and the bodies were dragged into the street in full view of the young girls. As a 10-year-old Giesla knew that life would never be the same again. Brown shirts as they were known stood outside Jewish shops trying to persuade Germans not to buy from them, which was in general ignored by regular customers. However, as time went on people started to become more afraid of these supporters of Hitler who would daub words like “Jew Supporter” on the buildings of people who had purchased goods from the Jewish community with some of them being attacked in the streets. Fearing for their families, support suddenly disappeared and it became more and more difficult to run the family business as wholesalers refused to supply goods and on a number of occasions Giesla and Sonia’s father was beaten up just for being Jewish.
At the age of 11 Giesla moved to a Jewish Grammar School where life was a little easier.
In October 1938, there was a knock on the family door and two men told her father to get dressed and bring his passport as he was being taken away with no explanation as to what was happening. Not knowing what was going on Giesla went into the kitchen to make some sandwiches for her father to take with him on what turned out to be a two-day journey which they found out later was because he was being deported back to Poland where he was born and so the food became very useful. Poland had decided that anyone who had a Polish Passport and had not been back to their country after a certain length of time would lose their nationality and so had no right to be in any country apart from Poland. With this position from the Polish Government, Germany decided to deport these unwanted citizens to Poland so they were not left with illegal immigrants. Germany at first only sent back the men of the household as they didn’t have enough trains to cater for whole families. With their father in Poland the family home soon came under threat from the German Government as a German family wanted their rooms. They were threatened with eviction but Giesla and Sonia’s mother decided to fight the decision and went to court where she won a stay of eviction for three months, a period of time the Judge gave them to clear out the house of all their belongings. This move by Germany to get rid of its Jewish population by eviction started to show that something had to be done by the family before it became worse and so Giesla and Sonia’s mother applied to the Cuban Embassy for a Visa to get as far away from Germany as possible. She was successful, in her application for herself, Giesla and Sonia her husband who in theory was able to come back from Poland as long as it was only in transit and this is where things started to go wrong for the “family”.
Germany as usual was a very organised country but Poland was not as efficient and through a mix-up Giesla and Sonia’s father was not given his Visa as his brother was issued with his papers and sent back to Germany rather than their father leaving him to make his own way on a later ship with a new set of papers his wife had secured for him two weeks later.
The family finally left for the port after a mix-up with their own Visas on a Friday to board the ship which is not usual for Jews as they shouldn’t travel on a Friday. They were seen off by friends of the family who knew this would be the last time that they would see them as they went to their new country. They boarded the German ship the St Louis which set sail on Saturday the 13 May 1939, with 937 Jews travelling from Hamburg to Cuba.
Sonia said that the Captain was wonderful towards the passengers even allowing the Jewish women to light candles on a Friday.
They eventually reached Havana Harbour in Cuba on the 27 May 1939, but as they tried to dock they were told that they couldn’t land and had to wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow turned out to be seven days later despite Captain Gustav Schroeder, speaking directly to the Government of Cuba pleading for them to let in his passengers. One man who Sonia thought had been in a concentration camp before he left Germany tried to commit suicide by jumping off the ship into the water. He had been released by the Germans only because he could prove he had somewhere outside of Germany to go to with his wife, but as they arrived in Cuba the Cuban immigration department would only allow him to enter their country as he had a valid US Visa but his wife had to stay on board as she was not welcome. After being pulled from the water he was evacuated to a Havana Hospital for treatment but it is not clear what happened to his wife at this time.
After seven days being refused entry to Cuba on the 2 June 1939 the Captain turned the ship towards America and sailed along the Florida coast towards Miami but due to the US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1924 limiting the number of immigrants to the USA in each year they were refused entry despite their being a large amount of media coverage and various passengers sending cables (Electronic Mail) to President Franklin D Roosevelt himself. Another possibility was Canada who again like the US they refused entry for the Jews. An American diplomat did however talk to a number of European Countries about the passengers and four Countries agreed to take them. The Captain turned the ship towards the East with France taking 224 passengers (a temporary refuge as Germany Invaded their Country), Holland (181 Passengers), Belgium (214 Passengers) and Great Britain who took 228 passengers with all but one of them surviving in the UK during the war (The one killed was in an air raid in 1940).
However, with the publicity about the ship in the papers their father never made it to Cuba or Britain as the ship he was on only reached Antwerp before the Captain heard the news that the St Louis had been refused to land in Cuba and he turned the ship back to Germany. From Germany Gisela and Sonia’s father was sent back to Poland just before war broke out and the family never saw him again. What happed to him we may never know as he seemed to just disappear from the records. German Jews were catalogued and their records are kept but the Jews records in Poland were not as well documented and so there doesn’t seem to be a record of Sonia and Gisela’s father being killed or dying in an air raid or being taken prisoner and sent to a concentration camp.
When Sonia, Gisela and their mother arrived in London they were met by the sight of bunting at the railway station which was not for them but the King and Queen had been abroad and were coming back on the same day.
Gisela was sent to do domestic work while Sonia and her mother found a room in North London where after the first night Sonia found she had blotches all over herself from Bed Bugs. The following day they found a Jewish lady who took them both in. Gisela went on to make uniforms when the War broke out and now both have families in Britain and are able to relate their story to a receptive audience at the Holocaust Memorial Day Event at Sandbach Town Hall.
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27 March 2018
FODEN’S BAND LAUNCH HISTORY WEBSITE
Foden’s Band held a special concert to launch their new website which will show off their 118-year history. The performance at Sandbach Town Hall on the 27 March 2018 was watched over by William Foden’s bust which had been saved from a fire at the band-room a couple of years ago and had been restored as part of a project to preserve the bands past.
With special guests including the Mayor of Sandbach, Martin Forster and members of the public there was an opportunity to see and exhibition of artefacts donated to the band for its archive, various cups and trophies plus a medal collection loaned by Allan Littlemore.
The evening included interval music from the 78 collections of the band digitally remastered for the archive.
Interval food was also provided by Daniel Williams of Godfrey Williams and Son.
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24 May 2018
SANDBACH MARKET HALL RENOVATIONS BEGIN
After many years of discussions, the improvements to the Sandbach Market Hall have begun. A disastrous scheme and questionnaire in May 2016 to put in a floor above the market stalls for office space for the Town Council was put to rest with the public and stall holders getting together to put forward plans for an improved look to the market to increase footfall which were approved by Sandbach Town Council with a set of designs being submitted in October 2017 by architects David Trowler Associates and a presentation to the public in the Town Hall by Councillors.
Work started on the outside of the building during the beginning of May with Scaffolding being placed inside the Market Hall on the 20 May 2018 allowing work to start painting the ceiling and alter the electrics above the stalls.
Repairs to the tiled flooring took place from the 16 – 18 May 2018, with Baby Changing facilities and Toilet improvements being made outside the main hall.
Alterations to the Market will continue from the 7 May 2018 to the 5 July 2018 (44 Days) with the instillation of new glass canopies on top of the side stalls from the 16th June to the 5th July 2018, New signage will be added from the 2nd to the 4th July 2018 and the lobbies next to the doors will be improved between the 4th to the 29th June 2018 with new picture shutters being added to the side stalls that will include scenes of old Sandbach supplied by local historians.
The Indoor Market will be closed on the 21st and 23rd June 2018 with stalls moving outside on these days to continue trading during the period of closure but will also be open during the rest of the period on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Work should be completed with a hand over hopefully on the 6 – 7 July 2018 and then a new era will begin for this historic building.
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26 July 2018
OFFICIAL OPENING AFTER CONTROVERSIAL PLANS FOR TOWN HALL
In March 2016, the Sandbach Town Council had proposed a redevelopment of the Market Hall with the instillation of a second floor which would house the offices of the Council that would then move from the Literary Institute. The plans involved spending vast sums of money to alter the fabric of the GRADE 2 listed building with the proposed closure of the area for a number of months while building work took place.
Market stall holders and members of the public were up in arms about the proposals and meetings were held with heated discussions until a compromise was made that only an improvement of the building and stalls would be made along with the dropping of the idea for a second floor and offices.
Plans were put forward for the improved look to the market in October 2017 by architects David Trowler Associates and work started on the outside of the building during the beginning of May with Scaffolding being placed inside the Market Hall on the 20 May 2018, allowing work to start painting the ceiling and to alter the electrics above the stalls. Repairs to the tiled flooring took place from the 16 – 18 May 2018, with Baby Changing facilities and Toilet improvements being made outside the main hall as the Market continued to trade from the 7 May 2018 to the 5 July 2018 (44 Days). A new glass canopy on top of the side stalls was installed from the 16th June to the 5th July 2018. New signage added from the 2nd to the 4th July 2018 and the lobbies next to the doors were improved between the 4th to the 29th June 2018 with new picture shutters being added to the side stalls that included scenes of old Sandbach supplied by local historians, from the Minshull family archive. Work was completed with a hand over between the 6 – 7 July 2018 and a new era began for this historic building.
On Thursday the 26 July 2018, Sandbach Town Council held the official opening of the renovated Market Hall at 2pm with various events taking place on the following Thursdays to help promote the new building improvements.
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26 July 2018
SANDBACH MARKET HALL OFFICIALLY OPENED
Improvements to the Sandbach Market Hall have finished after work started at the end of May to make the building into something that the people of Sandbach could be proud of and hopefully improve the footfall of the market to bring back the numbers of visitors it used to enjoy. The added publicity surrounding the renovations have certainly helped with the shoppers visiting the market and with a plan that includes special events it looks as though the market is starting to get back on its feet.
Culminating in an opening ceremony on the 26 July 2018, when Sandbach Mayor Richard Hovey cut the green ribbon, a colour that matches the paintwork of the new look stalls around the sides of the hall, the event attracted a large crowd of people connected to and interested in the final results.
The day also included a visit from “Punch and Judy” (Ian Davis from Staffordshire), Elsa (Frozen Character) and Spiderman (Crime Fighter) along with street magician Ian, who all entertained the children who were off from school and the adults coming to the market.
Architects David Trowler Associates oversaw the painting of the ceiling, new electrics, lighting above each stall new facades for the stalls, signage and new sliding doors which in winter will keep the building a lot warmer than it has been in the past. Councillors and Staff at Sandbach Town Council have also kept a close eye on the project which has been a collaboration between them and the Market traders who wanted the improvements to the Market to help restore it back to the vibrant facility it once was for the town.
Each of the shutters on the stalls has a picture from Sandbach’s Past supplied by the Minshull Archive. Managed by Stephen Minshull who has taken over his father’s archive of pictures of the town the archive consists of images taken from old postcards and photographs (On Slides) that his father John Minshull captured of the streets and shops of the town from the 1960’s until his death 20 years ago in 1998. Stephen has digitised the archive of about 6,000 images and picked the best ones that reflected the town’s history along with a journey from the Wheat Sheaf down Hightown and around the town via its historic buildings, with the foyer shops decorated with images from the town’s former industries of Fodens, ERF and the Silk Mills. Stephen then had to upgrade the images from 35mm film to a very high quality digital image that could be enlarged to fill the shutters. These were then made into plastic transfers which were added to the shutters and can now be seen when the market closes or on dates when the hall is open for other events like the record and craft fairs.
A few minor alterations will finish off the project, which most people who saw it on the opening day and surrounding market days says is a great improvement and will be an asset to the town.
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18 August 2018
STORMTROOPERS INVADE SANDBACH MUCH TO THE DELIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS
The latest event to draw the public to see the new look Market Hall in Sandbach on Saturday the 18 August 2018, included an invasion of the town by Imperial Stormtroopers from the Star Wars film series, much to the delight of the inhabitants. I’m not sure who was more excited the young children or the older adults who all wanted to have their pictures taken with the armoured men and other characters from the films.
Members of the ‘Staffs Imperial Stormtroopers’, are a non-profit-making group who dress up in characters from the film to take part in various events including this weekend when they were raising funds for the Donna Louise Trust (Children’s Hospice in Stoke on Trent),a charity close to their hearts and for whom they recently attended a ‘Superheroes Picnic’, at Dorfold Park near Nantwich. Mainly publicising the film series, they have been in great demand at Comic Conventions like the Nantwich Comic Con on the 9 June 2018 and at the opening screening of the new films including “Solo: A Star Wars Story” at Cineworld in Stoke on Trent.
On a sunny day in Sandbach their planned 60 minutes soon turned into a three hour walk around the town posing for pictures at every opportunity allowing children and adults to play with their blasters and pose in true Star Wars style with everyone knowing exactly what to do.
John Beddows of Sandbach Market said that “It was a fab day in Sandbach, the team were brilliant and made it a really great day. You can tell they love what they do especially with the children. There will be another invite to Sandbach very soon”.
The next events at Sandbach Market were a ‘Face Painting Event’ on Thursday the 23 August and a ‘Cheshire Police and Sandbach Air Cadets’ event plus extras on the 30 August.
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18 August 2018
AUTHORS SIGNING EVENT AT TOWN HALL
Eleven writers attended an author signing event in Sandbach on Saturday the 18 August 2018.
This was the 3rd event held at Sandbach Town Hall and organised by Sandbach Town Hall’s Conference and events officer, Laura Surgenor (Writer Elizabeth Morgan) who was the only face from the previous events to appear this year.
Like the previous occasions it was a great opportunity to talk to local writers and to find out about the wide variety of subjects covered in the new self-publishing world.
Writers came from all over the North West including our own home town.
Sarah Lysaght who has lived in Sandbach for over 20 years is the writer of three books, “37 Downing Street” which is based on her own family tree and was published in 2012 is about a bricklayer turned fishmonger in Farnham and chronicles the family from the time of Queen Victoria to the 1930’s through tragedy and pain with and unexpected ending. Based on her own family history, which Sarah has been researching for the last 20 years the saga continues into her second book “Loyalty on the Home Sweet Home Front” which looks at the life of George who in 1944 is suddenly taken ill and starts to reminisce about his life including his time in the Boar War and the Army Canteen as a NAFFI inspector.
Sarah’s third book “The Manchester Bradshaw’s” is another book based on family history but this time it is her husband’s family connection that is featured with over five generations of exceptional men she explores their lives mixes with a hint of fiction that is seen in all her novels.
Published and available on Amazon this was the first time Sarah had been involved with a publicity event for her books which she wrote as a hobby rather than as a commercial undertaking and through word of mouth has managed to gain a good recommendation with between 4 and 5 stars on Amazon.
Susi Osborne lives in Cheshire with her Scottish husband and actress daughter. This former library assistant has been writing for about 12 years and writes contemporary fiction starting with “The Ripples of Life” (2008), “Grace and Disgrace” and “Secrets, Lies and Butterflies” (2013) which are all linked together and are about family dramas with plenty of humour. Her forth book “Angelica Stone” (2017) is very much a book about the lives of the homeless and mental illness and was researched by Susi meeting those without a home on the streets as well as her experience with her own mothers Alzheimer’s and the incidents she had looking after her. Looking after her mother also gave Susi the opportunity to start writing as she had time to sit down and think as well as it being a time when her children had left home so she could spend a couple of hours a day writing her novels without being disturbed.
(Nigel) N J Cartner, writes about a trip to Las Vegas, when the main character Ricky Lever comes to a crossroads in his life. “Lost in Manchester found in Vegas” shows how sin city can influence a man in life after he has split from his girlfriend and lost his job at the same time with this theme planned to continue in N J Cartners next instalment which he is writing at the moment. Having written reviews for fanzines and some community radio experience, Nigel decided it was time for his first novel and sat down to write about his experience in the USA with added musical references including songs that have played a big part in his life and the back of the book he has compiled a discography of the music featured in the book itself so you can play the tunes as you read the book to give it a film like quality which has influenced his writing.
K Spencer has three books out with the central character of Canyon Devils MCand who appears in “Angel” (2016), Princess (2017) and the latest instalment “Sparky’s Treasure” which was published on the 8 August 2018.
Other authors at the event were Lucy Felthouse (Erotic Romantic novels), Scribbelious (various books), Paul Bernardi (Historic Suspense Novels, “To the Devil his Due” and “Thurkill’s Revenge”), (Tracy) T N Traynor (Mystical Quest Novel Series, “Oracle’s Quest”, (Charlotte) C A Keith (Ghostly Writes Anthology), Claire Plaisted (Female secret investigator and also featured in the Ghostly Writes Anthology of short stories), and Elizabeth Morgan (Urban Fantasy and Erotic Horror).
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2 December 2018
POP MEMORABILIA ON DISPLAY AT SANDBACH TOWN HALL
Sandbach was privileged to have an exhibition of memorabilia connected to two of what will be the biggest grossing films of 2018 and 2019, the Queen film “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the new Elton John movie, “Rocket man” which is to be released in May 2019. Chris Hewitt who lives in the Northwich area has the biggest collection of studio equipment and tour memorabilia in the Country and was asked by John Beddows who runs the monthly record fairs in the Market Hall to bring some of his private museum to Sandbach to show to visitors of the Record Fair as well as interested enthusiasts of the artists, The Beatles, David Bowie and Queen, all of whom had used bits of the equipment on display at the 2 December fair.
Chris’s interest in music started on Oldham Market when he purchased records from a stall there. He then went on to act as a transporter for equipment and started to work on gigs with the “Strawbs”, “Mr Fox” and others with Mick Spratt who was in charge of setting up sound systems.
After a brief time in London he met a man from Stoke on Trent who offered him a job mixing live for “East of Eden” and worked with “Ian Dury” and Lemmy from Hawkwind and Motorhead who was born in Stoke on Trent and used to borrow a lot of equipment, with one of Chris’s first jobs being to retrieve items from the rock star.
In 1972, Chris helped set up the Rochdale Festival followed by working with a group called “Tractor” who rehearsed from 1968 in a building at 58, Market Street, Heywood which is where they went on to set up a studio. Between 1973 and 1976 the building became the “Tractor Sound Studio”, which was partly funded by the late John Peel and was run by Chris Hewitt with Steve Clayton, Jim Milne and Alan Burgess.
Later Chris would open his own studio in Rochdale along with Peter Hook from “Joy Division” and “New Order”.
Peter Hook is also responsible for this collection as in 2010 Chris was asked to help put together a recreation of an old Joy Division gig for an exhibition. As he searched for an amp that could have been used at the time by the band he discovered one in America, which he later found out had belonged to George Harrison.
Having kept his own equipment from the 1970’s this became the seed of the collection he has today.
Equipment on display in Sandbach included a mixer and speakers from the Beatles time in the Abbey Road Studio. These items were acquired separately by Chris but all feature on the same picture which was displayed next to the exhibit. Another Beatles connected item was the sound compressor from John Lennon’s “Ascot Sound Studio” at his Tettenhurst Park residence which was sold in an auction of items after Ringo Star had acquired the house and studio from John when he moved to America and Ringo was selling off items he didn’t want to keep when he eventually sold the house. The compressor was used by John when he made his second solo album “Imagine” and was seen recently on television in documentary footage filmed during the recording of the record.
With such a great collection it is no wonder that Chris is called upon to supply film and television companies with authentic equipment for productions. Unfortunately, once Chris has set up the equipment on site he is then not allowed to watch the filming of the scenes and only discovers what they had done when he receives a picture from the set or sees the finished results.
A mixer used in the Bohemian Rhapsody film’s “Live Aid” sequence was on display in the foyer of the record fair at the Market Hall. David Bowie and guitarist Mick Ronson were represented by a rehearsal mixer they used while putting together the “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” album. Pink Floyd plus Emerson, Lake and Palmer, were also featured in the exhibition at Sandbach with microphones, speakers, mixers and various items from studio’s and stages around the world taking up the Town Hall upstairs.
For those who have an interest in the history of Pop Music this was a great opportunity to get close to iconic pieces of equipment.
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8 March 2019
STRICTLY FLOWERS AT TOWN HALL
On the 8 March 2019, the Elworth Flower Club held its second “Strictly Flowers and Dance” event at Sandbach Town Hall. The event in aid of Cancer Research raised a large sum of money for the charity and fatured flower arrangers Mark Entwistle and Jacqui Owen along with dancers Mark and Kay Farrugia, Andrew and Carol Middleton, Helen Morris and her team from Syncronicity Dance. Organised by Bernard Preston with help from his wife Irene and members of the flower club the event was a great success with some wonderful displays of arrangements on stage and a variety of dancing worthy of the original Come Dancing.
Formed in 1957 they first met at the School Hall of Elworth Church of England Primary School but moved to Bradwall Village Hall in the 1990’s (Pre 1996).
20 June 1997 Sandbach Chronicle Page 21
The Elworth Flower club presented a cheque to The Sandbach Talking Newspaper and Reg Spencer of Hospital Radio for £100 after their annual Flower demonstration at Sandbach Town Hall.
Tues 29 Apr 1997 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall
(1st with Stewart Green on Sound)
Tues 9 Dec 2003 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall
Tues 7 Dec 2004 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
Mon 5 Dec 2005 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Dawn Weaver
Mon 4 Dec 2006 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Joan Hardwick with Colin Hardwick
Tues 4 Sept 2007 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY EVENT
at Sandbach Town Hall.
Music and Flowers - With Patti Dawson and Kate Russell
And music by young performers called Fire and Singer Arthur Talbot
Tues 4 Dec 2007 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Neil Whittaker
Tues 9 Dec 2008 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Lois Gill and the Saxon Singers
Tues 8 Dec 2009 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Dawn Weaver and th Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 7 Dec 2010 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Don Billington and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 6 Dec 2011 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Kathleen Williams and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 11 Dec 2012 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Beryl Cotton and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 10 Dec 2013 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Wesley Centre (TOWN HALL CLOSED).
With Anthony Williams and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 9 Dec 2014 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Jonathon Mosley and Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 8 Dec 2015 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Diane Fair with Sandbach Ladies Choir
Tues 6 Dec 2016 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Neil Whittakar with Sandbach Ladies Choir
Fri 10 Mar 2017 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
Demonstration “Strictly Flowers”
With Arthur McDonald, Mark Entwistle with Dancers Helen and Matt
Tues 5 Dec 2017 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Laura Leong and Sandbach High School Choir
Tues 4 Dec 2018 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Jonathon Moseley and Sandbach High School Choir
Fri 8 Mar 2019 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
Demonstration “STRICTLY FLOWERS AND DANCE”
With Mark Entwistle and Jacqui Owen (Salsa Dancers)
In Aid of Sandbach Cancer Research UK Committee
10 Dec 2019 ELWORTH FLOWER CLUB at Sandbach Town Hall.
With Mark Entwistle and Sandbach High School Chamber Choir
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25 May 2019
MARVEL COMIC CHARACTERS COME TO SANDBACH
With Superhero’s from Spiderman to the latest Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers there had been an increase in popularity of these characters both on the small screen and on the large cinema screen with children of all ages wanting to don the costume and appear with their favourite hero. Sandbach Indoor Market is staging a number of events over the year to increase awareness of what it has to offer and on Saturday the 25 May 2019 they invited some of these Superheroes and Villains to the town to be photographed with members of the public or for them to shake the hands of the their favourite character, which for some was a bit much as they became shy in the presence of Superman or Captain America.
Two of those taking part were Andy Ford and Natalie Orry (Six Towns Radio) who are based in Stoke on Trent and are part of the Staffs Imperial Stormtroopers whodress as Star Wars, Marvel, DC and Power Rangers characters to appear at events where they entertain the public and raise money for local charities including a collection for the “Dougie Mac”, which was the charity they were collecting for as they wandered around Sandbach Town Hall and the Indoor Market on Saturday. The group have also raised money for the Peter Pan Centre, Air Ambulance, the Donna Louise Trust and they have recently run the Donna Louise Five K (Kilometres) Fun Run at Trentham Gardens in costumes.
The days event was organised by Record Stall holder and new Sandbach Town Councillor, John Beddows who arranged for the group to make their third visit to the townon Saturday as they had previously turned up as Stormtroopers from Star Wars earlier in the year and in August 2018. Like their previous visits they were very popular with the children of South Cheshire with visitors coming from Alsager and Crewe among those wanting pictures with their favourite comic book heroes. Many of the children dressed up as Marvel characters themselves with one young lady from Lancashire dressing as the new Wonder Woman while others donned Spiderman suits and rival Batman (DC Comics).
Andy also appears as a Stormtrooper, Captain America, Power Ranger and will soon be seen as a Ghostbuster.
Natalie also has a number of characters including Princess Leia (Star Wars), Bat Girl, Pink Ranger and Lady Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy) with costumes either manufactured by the wearer from off the shelf clothing or from a kit with parts sourced from various suppliers which gives a better-quality costume tofit the person. Andy said that his stormtrooper costume took three months to put together to make sure the strapping was fitted properly for himself and didn’t leave him bleeding as the hard-plastic suit cuts into him. With costumes sometimes costing about £950 to put together the group assured us that they didn’t take any payments for appearances and all the collection money went to the charity concerned.
Characters who appeared at Sandbach included Captain Marvel (Fiona), Bucky Barnes (Andy), Black Widow (Nat / Natalie), Magneto (Seb), Spiderman (Colin), Captain America (Andy Ford) and Lady Gamora (Natalie Orry)
Marvel Comics started on the 12 January 1939 as Timely Comics and then on the 16 April 1947 it was renamed Magazine Management with the titles changing to Atlas Comics. The company became Marvel Comics on the 19 February 1961 and was acquired by the Walt Disney Company on the 31 August 2009 which has now seen an increase in the amount of films featuring the characters created by the late Stan Lee (Died on the 12 November 2018) who has appeared like Alfred Hitchcock in most, if not all the TV Series and films connected to his creations. Other superheroes and villains from the comics were co-created by Steve Ditko (Spiderman) and Jack Kirby (The Hulk) who have drawn and produced thousands of publications with stories that include hundreds of characters that span what is now known as the Marvel Universe including the Fantastic Four, X Men, Agents of Shield, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman (August 1962) Agent Carter / Captain America (March 1941), Thor, Black Panther and Deadpool with their alter egos and arch nemesis.
With the success of Saturdays event I am sure the Staffs Imperial Stormtroopers Inc. will be back soon with more characters to raise funds for charity and help promote Sandbach Indoor Market which is open on Thursdays and Saturdays with some Fridays during the year as well as special events on Wednesdays and Sundays in the Market area.
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15 November 2019
Sandbach Town Council for many years has put on a Christmas Market around the town and also within the Market Hall and Town Hall Ballroom. Godfrey Williams and Son staged a Taste of Christmas event each year to publicise its producers and now a local group from the Rugby Club caterers staged the first of what they hoped would be a regular event of “A Taste of Sandbach”with caterers from the various restaurants bringing a taste of what they produce to the Market Hall for an alfresco event.
6 December 2019
The annual Christmas Market.
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In March 2020 like so many venues around the country the Town Hall was closed due to the Coronavirus / Covid 19 pandemic and would not open to events including its 130th Anniversary.
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EVENTS AT THE TOWN HALL
Bowling (Indoor)
Dancing Classes
Drama Classes
Elworth Flower Club Christmas Demonstration.
Royal British Legion Annual Dance
Sandbach Voices
Wedding Fair
Wedding Venue
TOWN HALL HISTORY AND SHOW EVENTS ETC.
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