June 2008 Archives

At the end of June Chester Cathedral Green will come alive with the sound of actors, singers, dancers, and children telling stories from the Bible to packed audiences.
Seven hundred years ago, people in Chester were doing exactly the same thing.

The Chester Mystery Plays date back to the 14th Century when members of the city's freemen and guilds performed tales from the Old and New Testaments to the city's populace who didn't understand church services in Latin.
Written by the monastic scholars of the Abbey of St Werburgh, now Chester Cathedral, the plays tell the story from God's Creation through to the Last Judgement of Christ.
They were originally staged on open pageant wagons which were trundled through the streets to "stations" where the audience gathered.

The first station was outside Abbey Gate and the 2008 audience will pass through the same place to see the modern version of the plays. The medieval route continued down Northgate to the Cross then along Watergate, cutting next into Bridge Street then Eastgate.
Original scripts of mystery plays survive from only five UK cities, with Chester's being the most complete in existence with a text of 24 plays.

An ecclesiastical ban in the 16th Century put a stop to the performance of mystery plays although Chester was the last to succumb, much to the fury of the ruling Archbishop.
Hundreds of years later, in 1951, the plays were revived as part of the celebrations of the Festival of Britain.

Chris Fletcher, 81, remembers being in that first revival.
"I was in the chorus of Noah and we performed the plays in the refectory of the Cathedral.
"I was 24 at the time, single and teaching art at Helsby Grammar School and two other members of staff and I thought it would be a good idea to get involved.
"It was really exciting. We had to plead with Noah to let us on the Ark and I remember God being up a pulpit. It was very effective."

Chris' grandchildren Daniel, 17 and Abbi 13, are both taking part in the 2008 production. Daniel, a student at Upton High School, is playing the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, head of the Order of Cherubim, a devil and a soldier. Abbi is performing as part of Jigsaw Music Theatre Company in the Creation and Noah.

Chris, of Great Sutton, is hoping to go and see her grandchildren's performance with her son Peter and his wife.
She says: "As far as I can remember I don't think we had as many rehearsals as Dan and Abbi are having now."

Chairman of Chester Mystery Plays Ltd, Jo Sykes, remembers first getting involved with the plays in 1962 when she was still a schoolgirl. She has been involved in one way or another in every production since then.
She says: "During the long, hot summer of 1973 a company of 20 Chester Guildsmen took to the streets of the city under the leadership of pageant master Kevin Catchpole, a local journalist and theatre enthusiast.

"The men, drawn from various guild companies and wearing simple costumes made by their wives and guild supporters, performed on a cart designed and built by Chester Gateway Theatre designer Robin Edwards.
"This production ran simultaneously with the main production which was directed by James Roose-Evans and was performed on the Cathedral Green in a Big Top.
"Animal heads, made by pupils of Christleton School, were hung around the colourful cart and children from the watching crowd were welcomed aboard the Ark at each performance.
"Among distinguished spectators was writer and broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge who found the cart plays 'quite charming'."
In 1977 and 1982 she played the role of Mary Magdalene.

Artistic director of the 2008 cycle, Robin Goddard, has also had a long standing artistic involvement with the plays.
In 1977 he played Lucifer, five years later swapping sides to take on the role of Jesus.
Composer and musical director of the 2003 and 2008 cycles, Matt Baker, was first involved in 1992 when he was asked to compose a short Hosannah chant for the Judas play, in which he appeared as Caiaphas.
Jo added: "The 2008 production is almost upon us and this is where the magic begins. There is a spectacular new set and costumes designed by Judith Croft, exciting new music composed by Matt Baker and of course Robin Goddard's imaginative and at times breathtaking artistic direction which will astound and delight the audiences who will flock to Chester Cathedral Green."

The Chester Mystery Plays will be performed on Chester Cathedral Green from June 28 to July 19 (previews June 26 and 27). Tickets from Chester Festivals Box Office at Chester Racecourse 01244 304618.

The only thing 64-year-old Jim Tarbox (right) knows about his real father is that he was called G Moss and was in Chester during the Second World War. He tells Chester Chronicle ALLISON DICKINSON about the quest to find his roots.

JIM Tarbox only discovered the man he called Dad was not his father after his mother died two years ago.
As he started preparing her eulogy he looked through her papers to find out when Tamar Tarbox, née Garrard, was stationed at Saighton camp with the Auxilliary Territorial Services in Chester.

"I found that some of the dates didn't quite match up," he said.

"I also found two birth certificates for me - one in my mother's maiden name with no entry under the father's name dated 1944, and another dated two years later which gave me the surname of Tarbox, the man she married, and the man I had known as Dad.

"I called my uncle and he asked if I knew Les was not my real dad - it turned out that my aunts, uncles and cousins knew and they had kept this a secret from me for 60 years. I just couldn't believe it.

"Working back the months from my birth date, she was definitely in Chester when I was conceived - and I need to know if my father or any of his family are still in the area. Not to gain an extended family, but to fill the large gap that I have in my life. I simply need to know who my father was."

Jim, born John Montgomery-Garrard in Ongar, Essex in June 1944, discovered his mother had become pregnant while serving with the ATS in 1944. He does not know why the name Montgomery appears on his original birth certificate.

Tamar's Army records revealed she was 18 when she joined the ATS in December 1941. She had been stationed at Saighton from January 1942 to February 1942, when she went AWOL.

She was arrested and brought back to Saighton in March 1942, where she remained until being discharged for "family matters" in December 1943. Jim was born in June 1944.

Court records from June 1944 revealed that Jim's father, identified on court papers as G Moss, had to pay maintenance of 7/6 per week until his 16th birthday in 1960 - and according to elderly relatives, he never missed a payment.

There were rumours among some relatives that his father could have been an American GI at the camp, but Tamar's then best friend Marie Marshall, who is still alive, says the man spoke with a "local accent".
Marie has told Jim she knows nothing about his father except that, on the two occasions she met him, he was in civilian clothing.

Tamar joined the ATS after hearing that her fiancée, John Rennocks, was missing in action in Burma and was believed dead.
Jim, a retired police officer from Stanford Le Hope, Essex, thinks that her affair with the man he knows only as G Moss occurred because she was mourning the loss of that relationship.

Bizarrely, John survived and ended up marrying Tamar's sister when he eventually returned to their home town of Ongar and found her married with two young children.

Jim was at the time living with his grandparents and joined the family when he was six years old. He was eventually to become the oldest of 10 children.

Jim has been unable to gather any information about his biological father, and requests for details from the authorities have proved fruitless. He has even been on the television show Trisha to try and trace him, but to no avail.

He is looking for any information about G Moss, whether he was a local man or an American GI, and whether he is still in Chester or has family in the area.

He is appealing to Cestrians who lived or worked near the camp, or who attended one of the dances there, to search their memories for anything that could help me.

Contact Jim on 01375 403890 or you can post information to him, anonymously if you wish, at 5, Brampton Close, Collingham, Stanford Le Hope, Essex SS17 7NS.

THE Countess of Chester Hospital acquired its present title at a "naming ceremony" in 1984.
And although the West Cheshire Hospital site has been a venue for health care since 1829 it hasn't always had such a flattering name.

The site was first known as the Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum when it opened in 1829. The original building, which housed 90 patients, was designed by county architect William Cole Jnr.
In 1855, the first of a number of name changes occurred when it became Cheshire Lunatic Asylum and in 1870, it became Chester County Lunatic Asylum.

In 1889, Cheshire County Council became responsible for the asylum and in 1899 the original name, Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum, was restored.

The early years of the 20th century saw significant advances in the treatment of, as well as changing attitudes towards, mental illness.

These were reflected in developments at the site.
A new pathology laboratory was opened and in 1914, an annex was built.

In 1921, the name "asylum" was dropped and the title, County Mental Hospital, was adopted.
In 1948 the National Health Service took over the running of the hospital from Cheshire County Council and it was renamed Upton Mental Hospital.

In the early 1950s it became the Deva Hospital.

Following the amalgamation of Chester and District Hospital Management Committee and Deva Hospital Management Committee in 1965, it was renamed the West Cheshire Hospital.

In 1983, a new general hospital and an accident unit were opened on the West Cheshire Hospital site and following the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales on May 30, 1984, the present name, Countess of Chester Hospital, was acquired.

Since the closure of Chester Royal Infirmary in 1996 and Chester City Hospital in 1994, the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust has become the area's main district general hospital that we know today.

WEEDS, floods and dodging fruit were just some of the concerns facing the original members of a Chester tennis club that celebrates its 100th birthday this year.

The Glan Aber Tennis Club was founded in 1908 with just 21 members and the promise of two grass courts on the site of a former market garden at the corner of Glan Aber Road and Hough Green.
The rent was £6 per annum with additional, incidental costs for any fruit that was damaged during the fetching of stray balls.

The club is now based in Westminster Park and plans are afoot to celebrate the centenary in style with a dinner, a wooden racquets tournament and a children's fun day.

President Steve Telford describes the club at the turn of the 20th Century: "In 1908 subscription was one guinea with supplementary funding provided by a whist drive at the City Café and a dinner dance at the Holborn restaurant.

"A Ladies' Tea Committee was formed and the men were seconded onto the Ground Committee to tackle the formidable challenges of the playing surface, the weeds and regular flooding or drought."

After the First World War, membership had increased to 85 and matches were played against Hoole, Wrexham, Waverton, Tarporley, Prenton and Liverpool University with eight victories recorded. Team members wore detachable badges sporting the club colours of Saxe blue and white.

Ambitious fundraising projects included an Armistice Day Dance in 1919 and Christmas plays were presented at the Assembly Rooms between 1928 and 1931.
During the 1920s the club and its facilities steadily improved. A gramophone was purchased in 1923 to "entertain members waiting to play".

A new lawnmower was acquired in 1925 and by 1929 the four courts were converted to a shale surface.
Steve adds: "In 1934 a cigarette machine was installed by Chester Home Services, at no cost to the club, except perhaps to members' health!"

Standards of play at Glan Aber were not likely to produce a Wimbledon winner. In 1933, the club record was played 12, won 2, lost 10. By 1970 things hadn't improved with a record of played 24, won 2, drawn 2, lost 20.

The club bought the Glan Aber site in 1953 for £650.
Steve says: "During the 1950s there are recorded complaints about the junior membership, with the unruly summoned to a talk with the captain and the ground secretary.
"There was also a decision made that members be restricted from bringing babies to the club after 6pm on weekdays and on weekends.

"In 1955, members were reminded that they must not wash their feet in the wash basin."
By the 1960s membership had slumped and by 1978, the first year in eight that the club had made a profit, there was talk of closing it down.
It survived however and by 1990 discussions were under way with Chester City Council and the Grosvenor Estate Trust on a relocation to Westminster Park.

Ten years later, the dream became a reality and sale of the old site for building financed four floodlit all-weather courts, a new pavilion and four all-purpose courts for public use.
The club now has 200 members, a full-time coach, an extensive coaching programme, competitive teams and a thriving social calendar.

For details about the club's centenary events contact Steve Telford on 01244 674623 or Sue Britton on 01244 677936. The committee are keen to hear from past members.