Northfleet History Group - March 2013 Meeting.
“LOST EMPIRES”
Our members and visitors were treated to a very entertaining presentation at St Botolph’s church hall on Tuesday, 5th March, when Wilf Lower raised the curtain on ‘Lost Empires’. The title does not relate to any imperial past, but to the Stoll-Moss Empires - the music halls and variety theatres which had their heyday long before the arrival of television and well before cinemas, with theatres being the first places to show the earliest moving pictures on a screen between acts.
Wilf’s mother kept a boarding house near the old Chatham Empire theatre and he related many tales told by such well-known stars of the day as Arthur Askey and others, who stayed in her ‘digs’ as they were called, whilst they sat around the table enjoying a hot meal which she always provided for them late in the evening after the show.
The presentation included video clips of the legendary sand dance, performed as part of the celebrated ‘Wilson, Kepple and Betty’ act, as well as a re-creation of an Old Time Music Hall singalong, with Eastenders actress Jessie Wallace playing the part of Marie Lloyd - with many members of our audience joining in!
After the tea interval, our chairman, Ken McGoverin took us on a virtual tour of the complex maze of air raid shelter tunnels which were dug deep into the cliff in the old Rosherville Gardens section of Henley’s cable factory, and told how, when the factory’s identity on its water tower needed to be obliterated, this was painted out by swimmers carrying pots of paint leaning over the edge!
Our next meeting is in St Botolph’s church hall on Tuesday, 2nd April, when Carol Harris will tell us about the part played by women on the Home Front in World War II, whilst a month later, on 7th May, Ian Bevan will talk about the Inns of Court.
Wilf’s mother kept a boarding house near the old Chatham Empire theatre and he related many tales told by such well-known stars of the day as Arthur Askey and others, who stayed in her ‘digs’ as they were called, whilst they sat around the table enjoying a hot meal which she always provided for them late in the evening after the show.
The presentation included video clips of the legendary sand dance, performed as part of the celebrated ‘Wilson, Kepple and Betty’ act, as well as a re-creation of an Old Time Music Hall singalong, with Eastenders actress Jessie Wallace playing the part of Marie Lloyd - with many members of our audience joining in!
After the tea interval, our chairman, Ken McGoverin took us on a virtual tour of the complex maze of air raid shelter tunnels which were dug deep into the cliff in the old Rosherville Gardens section of Henley’s cable factory, and told how, when the factory’s identity on its water tower needed to be obliterated, this was painted out by swimmers carrying pots of paint leaning over the edge!
Our next meeting is in St Botolph’s church hall on Tuesday, 2nd April, when Carol Harris will tell us about the part played by women on the Home Front in World War II, whilst a month later, on 7th May, Ian Bevan will talk about the Inns of Court.