Welcome

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Seventy seats, and they were normally sold-out for every performance . . .

Welcome to our website: if you’re a casual visitor we hope you may find of some interest the story of this amateur theatre, its foundation by Frederick and Valarie Temlett, its growth, successes and eventual closure. If you were one of our patrons or part of the disparate team who served it – and you remember the theatre– then we old ghosts once again offer you the warmest of welcomes.

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They may look relaxed now but it’s a good bet they were busy plotting their next show . . .

Sadly Fred  died in May 2013 with his wife Val following him in February 2016. They were both in their nineties and had been married for nearly 74 years. They bought The Grange, at Little Tew near Chipping Norton, in 1958 and ten years later decided to create a theatre in their home (as you do!) which, as the years passed, saw well over one hundred different productions.

The main tabs illuminated by a couple of front-of-house spots (known – perhaps unsurprisingly – as “tab warmers”). This view was the one which bemused first-time audience members saw upon entering the auditorium; their senses would have been in overload after having driven through darkest north Oxfordshire country lanes, up a mysteriously-curving drive beneath large trees opening up a vista of a drop-dead gorgeous large Victorian house blazing with light and then being welcomed by its owner and shown through a busy bar and into their red plush seats . . .

A large but fragmented archive of documents has survived their passing, but was threatened with destruction when their home was emptied in preparation for sale.  This website will be its primary home and, as the archive contents are collated, so it will expand until finally Fred and Val’s love story will be complete.

We would be most grateful if you have any memories which could be added to this archive – after all these years it seems so sad that the theatre would fade from our consciousness and those memories lost. Of the 140+ shows produced, we are lacking programmes or any other information on around twenty. Please click here to see the list and get in touch through our contact form if you’d like to expand the archive; be assured we will be delighted to hear from you.

And a footnote: please respect the privacy of the Grange’s new owners and resist the temptation to revisit the house and its grounds. Enjoy the memories held within this website but as for the theatre itself, its contents were emptied and the building stripped bare in 2016. Nothing there now but echoes …