How it Began
In 2017 I, David Pibworth (left of the image) went to see my good friend Amy Marchant and her troup, The Wet Mariners, in a production of 'The Tempest' at The Willow Globe in Llandrindod Wells. It was a splendid show and afterwards, we sat around a campfire chatting and eating sausages and came up with a plan to do something similar at Clifton Reynes. It would certainly save me a 320-mile round trip and lessen my attempts at having to pronounce 'Llandrindod'.
I'm not sure how serious we were about it at the time but as soon as I got home, I chatted to Julie, my wife, about it and she suddenly came up with under the old railway arches, part of the old disused Midland railway line which stands beside one of our horse fields. We walked down there with the dogs and looked at it. It might seem obvious now but at the time the whole area was covered with bushes and trees and was hardly visible. Here's a 'then' and 'now' photo.
Had I known what we were going to have to do, I would not only have taken more photos of 'then’ but probably not even started the project. The reason I say that is that I with my pals John Drinkwater and Paul Wheeler, initially went down, somewhat optimistically, armed with chain saws etc, but it soon became obvious that this wasn't going to do the job and I had to make the decision to invest a lot of time and money into it, or knock it on the head.
Clearing the Decks
I decided that I'd only regret it if I didn't, and so hired the machinery and operators to clear the area, which took some time, and there was still plenty to do with John and Paul and our chainsaws. Initially, I'd thought that we would just uncover one arch, but by the time we had the machinery in, I realised that we would only want the other three arches uncovered at some point and so we went for it all while we had the machinery on site. So, it was all eventually cleared and we built a new fence along the original fence line line which keeps the field for hay for the horses and parking separate from where the audience sit, although the field is used for picnics before the shows and the larger musical events when we put in a mobile stage just for the music events.
We did manage to keep going during the pandemic as we could achieve the socially distance policies.
Work in Progress
It's certainly what one would call a work in progress and probably always will be. We initially put down a gravel area for the audience which we replaced about 3 years later with second hand astroturf to make it easier on 'bottoms' for sitting on as, although people bring their own chairs, children do like to sit on the ground when children's shows are on. So, we keep looking at bettering it but I'm pretty pleased at where it is after 7 years, considering we started from scratch, with no grants or funding.
To give you an idea of how 'invisible' it was, after we started work on it, a friend of mine was walking his dog on the Olney recreation ground, on the other side of the river Ouse, where you have a splendid view of The Arches, when he was approached by an irate member of the public who asked him when the people over the river had got planning permission to build it. He said he couldn't be sure but thought it was in about 1870 and that it might be a bit late for a letter of objection.
Part of the ongoing work in progress is in no small part due to flooding which occurs to some degree every winter, (this winter is probably the worst it's ever been since we started) so we are obliged to review it every spring whether we want to or not. We have to rebuild the staging area annually and the audience area and look at any safety issues. We can't complain as the bridges are flood arches, so the clue is in the name and it's a classy piece of construction.
Ambitions & Ethos
My ambition for the venue is to put in a roadway and a hard-standing car park area, but it's all a matter of hard cash when it comes down to it, so if anyone fancies coming in as a sponsor, do give me a call.
However, as I say, it's going the right way as my main ambition was to put on entertainment at a sensible cost and for everyone to have fun. We have a wide variety of shows. We have classics, children's shows, a music weekend, and much more.
We keep the tickets at the best price we can. We don't have an alcohol license as everyone brings their own food and drink. We do sometimes have an ice cream van. We use a great box office system (The Little Box Office) to make it easy to book, and we have recently revamped the website.
We don't charge any booking fees as I just don't 'Get' how venues get away with it. Just put the price up transparently for goodness sake. (Don't get me into booking fees as I do tend to rant a bit). So what you see is what you pay. No booking fees, no expensive drinks, no parking charges, just buy your tickets, bring what you want and have a good time. And possibly ice cream.
First Show at The Arches Theatre
The first show was in 2018 which was 'As You Like It', performed by, of course, The Wet Mariners with Amy Marchant. It was a try out for the venue and the only production that year, and it worked brilliantly and so we have added more and more shows for each summer season and interestingly Amy Marchant - now Amy Milburn - of The Wet Mariners - is performing as Rita in 'Educating Rita' with me as Frank. So for Amy it's back to the venue that she most certainly helped start. If I hadn't gone to see The Tempest at The Willow Globe, it would probably never have even come up. Amy and I have been discussing doing 'Educating Rita' for years, so as a wise man once said "All's Well That Ends Well'.
We have a small and efficient team, with Nicki Probets in charge of publicity and events, and Natalie and Ray Monahan who help each year to put the venue back together plus organise our superb volunteer group.
Also, thanks to my wife Julie, who came up with the venue, and John Drinkwater and Paul Wheeler who's help to get the venue into order in very quick time was invaluable. It was merely a thought in August 2017, and we had the first show up and running in August 2018.
As I'm always cracking on about, all success comes from teamwork and this is proof of it!
David Pibworth, Owner