Building record MDR15011 - The Art Theatre, New Mills

Main entrance faced out onto Jodrell Street, where the building was a single storey, oddly shaped building with simple wooden benches and a small stage. The theatre opened on Saturday June 24th 1911, with entertainment arranged for the opening afternoon including two films, 'Into the Jaws of Death' and 'The Cleaning of Scroggins House' plus songs by Little Ivy Francis, Miss Hilda Newsome, Miss Marie Francis and Mr Matt Ray. The New Mills Operatic and Dramatic Society was formed in 1922 and put on shows regularly each year, mostly musicals, such as The Gondoliers, Iolanthe, and The Yeoman of the Guard. The Society produced two shows a year until the outbreak of the Second World War, which brought all this to an end. “Live” shows returned to the stage in 1948 when the “Amateurs” obtained a temporary licence to perform. Plays were produced to begin with as finances would not support as full scale musical. However, two plays per year were staged successfully and were usually in a light-hearted vein. On March 21st 1959, the Sheffield Theatre Cinema Company closed the doors of the Art Theatre. On September 26th 1959 the Art Theatre re-opened. The Society had taken a two year tenancy, worked solidly seven days a week for ten weeks, then opened the theatre once again to entertain. The main problem, as always, was finance but thanks to the regular hard workers and individual fund raising efforts, in April 1961 the Art Theatre was leased for a further two years. Fund raising schemes were launched, but the job of running a theatre almost became too much, and a unanimous decision was taken to end the lease on June 24th 1964. (1)