Despite having lived a large part of my life in Shirehampton I must confess to being ignorant about it’s cultural past. For instance I didn’t know, until told at a recent surgery, that the first performance of Vaughn Williams ‘The Lark Ascending’ was at Shirehampton Village Hall in 1920.
This year happens to be the 50th anniversary of Vaughn Williams death. It has been put to me, and I agree, that it would be fitting to arrange a performance to commemorate this event and celebrate Shirehampton’s cultural past and future.
I wonder if there is anyone out there who would come to such a performance and feels that this is a good idea?
I will do what I can to arrange the performance and keep you informed.
July 23, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Welcome to the jolly knockabout world of blogging, Terry – are you the first Bristol Councillor-Blogger?
Wonderful to read about the Lark Ascending at the Village Hall.
A commemmorative celebration performance sounds like a great idea, and if I lived within walking distance (sadly I don’t) I would love to come along.
Is the Village Hall still standing today? What was the link to VW that led to the inaugural performance being there?
July 25, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Dona thanks for the comments above. As you can imagine the receiving of comments at this early stage of the blog is a subject of some excitement!
There are to my knowledge 4 other Bristol Councillor bloggers – when I get my act together I will add them on a blogroll.
The Village Hall is still standing and continues to be actively used by the community.
I am not sure why Shirehampton Village Hall was chosen as the venue. I do know that it was not performed with a full orchestra only piano and violin. Vaughn Williams was a resident of the Gloucester area.
October 24, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Terry.
Good Blog. Thanks for taking the time to create it.
I’m not originally from Bristol, but it seemed like a good place to be, so 6 months ago I bought a house in Shirehampton. It’s a nice town, and we’re enjoying living there.
However, I keep thinking as I walk around the ‘village’, that Shirehampton has got the potential to be a really great little centre, if only it had just a few more of the right kind of shops/services, and a few less boarded up & closed down places.
I have a vision of Shirehampton in a few years time, a decent coffee shop having opened in the High Street, maybe a restaurant or two, maybe even a book shop, and it being a really nice place to spend time on a Saturday morning, and a place that would attract more of the same kind of positive change.
What do you think? Being a newcomer, I’d be interested to know what, if anything, is being done in local government to promote places with great potential like Shirehampton to the right kind of business investors.
What can we, the people of Shirehampton do to encourage development in the right direction?
I’d come along to the Vaughan Williams performance – just the kind of cultural events Shirehampton needs!
Keep up the good work.