Kirkgate Quarter Chronicle January 2025

Happy New Year!

A particularly happy one for Kirkgate Arts as it is our 30th birthday year!!

We’re also really excited about all the work going on in our auditorium at the moment. Although we’ve been sat in the office cringing at the crashes and bangs of the ceiling coming down in the auditorium, we know it will be worth all the noise and mess.

Soon we’ll be able to enjoy a more pleasant environment in the theatre, with the installation of a heat exchange ventilation system to take the edge off those roasting summer nights, and the chilly winter air. Keeping a consistent temperature in the centre has always been a challenge, but with the new windows keeping out the draughts combined with this new heat exchange system we’re looking forward to a much more comfortable space.

The final stage of our funded work is to completely replace our stage lighting system, another contributor to oven like summer temperatures in the theatre! Replacing the existing rig will benefit performers (no more stage make up melting under the lights!) and also audiences- with a much more dynamic and flexible set up. No more ladder work to change the colour of a spotlight, or the shape of it’s beam, all will be controllable at the touch of a button!

We want to take this opportunity to thank the small team of volunteers who have worked tirelessly to bring all this together. Without their guidance and expertise we would simply have been lost. We are very lucky to have such specialised skills among our volunteers, if you have experience of buildings, performance spaces, stage tech etc, and have a few hours to spare we hope you’d consider volunteering with us. It’s not all glitz and glamour! There’s always lots to get involved with behind the scenes at a venue like this.
While we are on the subject of volunteering, we’re currently hoping to recruit some more bar staff and duty managers, to help spread the load of our increasingly busy events. If you think this might be just the thing to kick start your 2025 have a look on our website for more information.

Three of our staff began their Kirkgate Arts journey as volunteers themselves- who knows where it can lead!
A DAY IN THE LIFE

While the work is going on in our upstairs auditorium that does mean we have had to temporarily pack away our digital cinema projector. Cinema and NTLive screenings will return as soon as possible, but we’re already missing our weekly films!

We asked our film programming group, and our dedicated projectionists, to give us a big of an insight into their early experiences at Kirkgate. In this months Chronicle, Peter Daley shares what sounds like a truly terrifying task!!…

Memories from a trainee projectionist

In the days before digital cinema at the Kirkgate all films were shown on 35mm film. When I first started doing projection at the Kirkgate in 2013 most of the screenings were on 35mm film. A few screenings were on Blu-ray.  It would take about 6 months to train a projectionist on 35mm film.

The use of 35mm film was much more time consuming and less reliable for the projectionists. The film would arrive in a large box containing about 6 film canisters. The film reels in each of these canisters had to be joined together in advance by the projectionist and wound onto a big reel. This was done using a splicing machine and some sticky acetate tape. The ends of the reels were supposed to be labelled to make sure they were in the correct order. To check this the projectionist would also look at the image on both ends of the film to make sure that they were visually similar. In addition, the projectionist would stick a coloured dot onto the join. The reel then needed to be rewound and a short section of test tape added. Then followed the tricky job of feeding the film the correct way through various wheels and sprockets, ready for projection. All of this would usually be done a day or more in advance of the Monday screening and would take well over an hour. On the very first time that I prepared the film by myself it took about 3 hours. Of the 6 reels of film received from the distributors, 3 of them were wound the wrong way around, so a lot of winding and rewinding was required to sort this out after my initial confusion.
We’re impressed that anyone was willing to volunteer as a projectionist!! After looking through old instruction manuals…
On projection night, in advance of the film, the projectionist would switch on the analogue film equipment and run the test film to make sure the projector was working. The actual film would be run with the audience ready and the projectionist and duty manager keeping everything crossed in the hope that everything would work. Most of the time everything would work out fine, but on occasions there would be a technical problem. I can remember one occasion when the film reel snapped and the show had to be halted for a few minutes to do repairs. On another occasion the wrong lens was used and the film was stopped part way to manually change the lens to a cinemascope one.
Guess the year…. Did you come along to any of these film screenings? Get in touch if you have memories to share!
After the film had been shown the big reel of film had to be dismantled by the projectionist into the 6 or so individual reels then placed in the transit box ready to be collected by the distributor. This was where the projectionist would look out for the coloured dot which marked the joins between reels. Again, this would take about an hour with the projectionist being the last one out and having to lock up. There was certainly a sense of satisfaction when a screening went well. 35mm films were gradually phased out by film makers in favour of digital. Blu-ray took over at the Kirkgate for a few years and was much more reliable but still not without it’s technical problems. Eventually, Kirkgate’s equipment was upgraded with grant funding to the new digital cinema equipment that we use today and is much more reliable and gives an improved customer experience. I wonder what technical advances we will see in the next 10 years.
If you would like to find out more about volunteering with us at Kirkgate Arts visit our website.
KIRKGATE HISTORY AND HERITAGE

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Kirkgate Centre as an arts and heritage venue.  Thirty years on and the building is undergoing exciting new improvements as the Centre has evolved  to suit a variety of needs in the local community.

As far as the Heritage Group is concerned, 2025 actually marks 33 years since it came into existence, starting life as the Kirkgate Centre Museum Group Sub-Committee, meeting over the top of David Winkworth’s old shop on Main Street with just a handful of interested parties.  Their remit was to start the process of building a collection of objects and photos that would be housed in the developing Kirkgate Centre, and would form part of a town museum.  Plans had to be re-assessed in those early years, as the need to bring finance into the Centre through use of the Egremont Room became apparent.  So instead of a museum the movement was towards a collection that would be used to stage exhibitions/produce publications, alongside recording research into aspects of the town’s history.
Some early pieces from the Heritage Collection. (1. Washboard, 2. Pair of child’s clogs, 3. Box iron, 4. Kaleidoscope magic lantern slide, 5. Stone hot water bottle from Keenan’s)
The fledgling ‘museum group’ set to, gradually acquiring objects and photographs, and staging two exhibitions (at the United Reformed Church and the Victoria Hall) even before the Kirkgate Centre opened its doors.  These were Bygones Exhibitions, when members of the local community were invited to loan items for the day.  They received a tremendous amount of interest with tables groaning under the weight, and as a result many donated items subsequently came in.  Of particular interest were the many photo albums held by Marjorie Southgate of Cockermouth Grammar School, pictures taken and carefully saved by Marjorie and her husband Jock.  In later years we were lucky enough for those all to be donated to what has now become the Heritage Group.
Rebecca Fallows and John Fallows (Fearon’s mother and father)
Cockermouth Cycling Club (Youdale image, late 19th century)
The first meeting of the group in the new Kirkgate Centre took place on 25th April 1995, with Ted Petty as our new Chairman and myself as Secretary.    By that time we also had on board Josephine Brown.   Town historian Bernard Bradbury was a founder member of the group, along with David Winkworth and Peter Colley (architect and Civic Trust member who, along with wife Barbara, led the campaign for the development of the Kirkgate Centre), and Tom Hughes.  Aline Elliott joined us soon after, along with Mick Jane and later Eric Cass.  In the early days meetings centred around the nuts and bolts of being able to house a collection: shelving, museum-quality storage boxes, filing cabinets, flooring, lighting, security, paperwork procedures, all developed through a process of trial and error, meetings with experts, and the constant need to fill in funding applications (Barbara Colley’s forte).
Meanwhile, members were busy researching, interviewing elderly residents in the town, copying photographs and seeking out donated items to add to the collection.  In those early months the Centre was entirely volunteer-led, with no Manager in place.  Today it is a thriving organisation, catering for the needs of Cockermouth and surrounding areas with the help of a large body of volunteers

If you would like to know more about the Cockermouth Heritage Group, visit our website.
AN UNOFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE KIRKGATE

This month Bob Pritchard shares his recollections of the very first live performance at the Kirkgate Centre, back in 1995…

The business of fundraising, designing and converting the old All Saints School building into The Kirkgate Centre took the best part of 5 years, 1990-95, under the direction of the late Peter Colley and his wife Barbara. Towards the end of Year 4 CADS, (who by that time had been in existence for 10 years with almost 50 shows to their credit , in many makeshift venues around town) approached them with the idea of launching the new theatre with a performance of Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” (which had been the opening production of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford upon Avon in the 1930’s.) It appeared that building conversion was well in hand and there wouldn’t be a problem. The play was cast, (a very large cast!), rehearsals got underway for a production to open the theatre in January 1995. In November 1994 CADS made a familiarisation visit to the building to find that at the rear of the stage was a large, unprotected void where there should be some stairs. Not to worry, the stairs were coming soon. In the end, as with all building projects, there was a huge rush on to try to get everything finished. And as with all building projects, everywhere was covered in dust. Gill George, stage manager, remembers having to mop down the stage and dressing rooms before every rehearsal and performance.
We had great fun looking through Bob’s scrapbook of photographs, notes and even a copy of the programme…
Quite a list of last minute jobs! Varnishing the theatre floor after a rehearsal being our favourite, oh the glamour of theatre!
There was no raked seating at that point, so CADS own “Q-Build” rake was augmented with more of the same borrowed from many primary schools in the area to make a dizzying rake (far steeper than what’s in the Centre now). The theatre had no stage lighting or sound system, so that, too, was borrowed from various sources, including Whitehaven Teachers’ Centre. I seem to remember that “Limelighting” lent us a chandelier to dress the set. One thing that didn’t get finished in time was the fire alarm system, so the only way the show could go on was with a firewatcher (the late, great, Mr Jenkins, well known to All Saints pupils and staff of that era) sat in the Egremont Room throughout.
Some familiar faces… Note the borrowed platforms, and seating still wrapped in plastic!
The eagle eyed among you might spot one of our current duty managers…
For a gala opening Mayors and Council Chairs from all around were invited. They came with their gold chains, which two of the ne’er-do-wells in the cast acting in character, attempted to purloin as they came through the door. They swore this had been cleared this with the civic dignitaries beforehand, but not all of them seemed to be amused. And for most, they were sitting through 2 ½ hours of Shakespeare which was probably not their idea of a good night out. On the other hand, the rest of the audience loved it !  The wandering CADS had a home and Cockermouth finally had its dedicated theatre.
Peter and Barbara Colley, in the Times and Star article about the centre opening, which coincided with CADS 10th birthday!
YOUR KIRKGATE
To celebrate thirty years of Kirkgate Arts we want to share your stories and memories of the centre too! If you have some pictures of times you have enjoyed here, or have a tale to share with us, perhaps meeting an artist you’re a fan of, or if you found a workshop or a class here particularly inspiring…

Let us know, share your stories with us. To send an article, however long or short, please contact katie@thekirkgate.com and if you can send over a photograph all the better- we love to see how the place has changed and evolved over the years.

To start the year off were looking back to another classic CADS moment, you may remember mention of this escapade in a previous Chronicle…
Yes, you are seeing a dismantled mini being manoeuvred towards the fire escape!
We’re not entirely sure how the CADS production team managed to get past the scaffolding at the bottom, but the mini did make it into the auditorium. Do you remember the show? Let us know!

Thanks so much to Greg Greenhalgh for sharing his images with us.

We hope to be able to share lots more or your memories from the last thirty years of Kirkgate Arts through this year’s Chronicles.
GENERAL MANAGER’S LETTER
It’s all go at Kirkgate! Not just the centre itself this month, as the junction between Kirkgate and Market Place is currently closed while repair works are underway. You can still access the centre via Kirkgate, but if you are coming through town you’ll need to turn right up Station Street and join the top of Kirkgate via Lorton Street and Lorton Road. On foot you can still cross the road from the Bitterbeck car park, at the back of Seths pub on the corner.

The Egremont Room Bar is doing a fine job hosting our live events so far, I came along to ‘Mara’ on the 11th of January and was very impressed with the room as well as the performance! With flexible stage platforms and a large backdrop providing the perfect performance space the room was transformed. It’s great to see the space used to it’s full potential, with all sort of live events coming up, alongside our usual courses and workshops.

January is the perfect month for fresh starts, and we have all sorts of ‘join-in’ events to bring out your creativity, help you relax (with a mindfulness and breathworks course now available on the website) and learn new skills. There’s our Sunday Sessions, Poets Out Loud, Crafts@Kirkgate, Cooking@Kirkgate plus a creative writing course starting this week. The Egremont Room has never been so busy!

Don’t forget our Monthly Market returns on the 25th January too! There’s bound to be all sorts of treasures on offer as we start the new year.

Emma Heys
General Manager