Kirkgate Quarter Chronicle April 2025

We did it!! After months without cinema, and hosting all our live events in the bar downstairs (which proved very successful!) we are now back in the auditorium!

The final stage of redecoration was a mammoth task for our team of staff, volunteers and some extra people-power from Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick. More about that later in the Chronicle.

So are you ready to see the new look?….

Definitely time to get a photographer in! These snaps were taken by our operations manager just before the very first performance under the new LED stage lights. The Great Baldini entertained families at his magic show last Tuesday.

Somewhere lurking in the auditorium roof is a deck of cards… If it lands in your lap make sure you take it home for magical luck! The Great Baldini will be performing a cabaret show with our Arts Out West venues in May (this one is more for the grown ups though!).

You can also see his close up magic skills at one of our 30th Anniversary events in June, when we enjoy a Picnic at the Castle! More information on our anniversary events below.
A DAY IN THE LIFE

Back in autumn 2024 we were contacted by a local musician, keen to get back into the swing of live performances and the tech that these events entail. Juggling being mum to a young family with live performance is a difficult task, with most live music events being an evening affair! That’s when we knew we had found the perfect fit, with Kirkgate’s open mic developing into our, now fast growing, Sunday Session. Hear more from Laura Bailey below…

Hi, I’m Laura Bailey, and I host the wonderful Sunday Session at the Kirkgate on the second Sunday of every month. These relaxed afternoons give local aspiring musicians a chance to share songs, practise performing, and connect with a supportive audience. I absolutely love being part of it.

I grew up in Maryport, and after studying music at university, I returned to Cumbria with my partner Phil (also a local!) to settle down and raise our children near family. After an intense decade of raising children, my little boy and little girl are now in school—and I’m beginning to find my way back into the world of work and back to my true passion: music.

Putting myself forward to volunteer at the Kirkgate back in September 2024 was one of the first small but brave steps I took towards rebuilding a music career. Since then, I’ve met some wonderful musicians (and non musicians) who have filled my cup, encouraged me, and helped me rebuild my confidence—gently nudging me toward where I want to be.

I love the way that music brings people together, and I’m proud to support the development of the local arts scene and contribute to the important work happening at the Kirkgate.

My next big step is a special VE Day 80th Anniversary Concert, downstairs at the Kirkgate on Bank Holiday Monday, 5th May 2025. It will be a nostalgic, stripped-back show celebrating the songs that lifted spirits during the war.

Book your tickets here

And if you can’t make it, maybe you’d like to join us at the next Sunday Session on Sunday 11th May, where I’ll perform some of the audience favourites from the concert.

If you have been along to one of our Sunday Sessions you’ll already know what an exceptional singer and songwriter Laura is. We are over the moon that she’s having such a great time with the Sunday Sessions, her guidance and warmth bring out the best in our session performers.
@HOME @KIRKGATE

For this month’s chronicle we wanted to celebrate the amazing team that worked tirelessly over the last week before reopening the auditorium. Our staff all pitched in, whether it was paintbrush in hand or wrangling the hooray of Henry’s that had been brought in to the centre to give it a deep clean (if you follow our Facebook page you’ll have met them already!). Thanks to our cleaning team- Tess, Barbara, Gill, Rachel, Sue, Janine, Val, Christine, Sheila and Judith- who was also seamstress repairing our stage curtains. We enlisted the help of local painter and decorator Jon Lambert, who happily scampered up the scaffold towers and ladders to reach the dizzying ceiling, alongside safety and maintenance volunteer Steve Denton. Enormous thanks to the all the high level painters, Emma, Toby, Hannah, Dave, Nick, Neil, Katy, Guy, and a team of Katy and Guy’s friends who came along to help too! Not forgetting Helen and Rose who provided home baked scones and biscuits to keep the troops fed.

Steve and Jon at work below.
As well as all the Kirkgate staff and volunteers we put a call out through Together for Good, who help to put companies in touch with organisations that need help with all manner of work. Through this service we met Kaitlin, who rallied her colleagues along to help with the enormous painting task.
‘The team at Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick are pleased to have played a part in the revamp of the Kirkgate Centre. It was a rewarding experience to be able to contribute to a community hub which is an integral part of Cockermouth’s local arts & heritage. We were well looked after by the team who we are so pleased for, they have worked extremely hard to make this project possible. The team have commented that their time at the Kirkgate was refreshing and valuable.’

Huge thanks to Kaitlin and her colleagues!
It truly is incredible what can be achieved when we all pull together, fantastic job everyone!
Next month we’ll meet the professionals who worked with us to bring our auditorium improvement plans from paper to reality.
KIRKGATE HISTORY AND HERITAGE

Commemorations for VE Day (8th May) will be taking place very soon. Of course, World War II was not officially over until war in the Far East was over (VJ Day, August 15th). In Cockermouth full-blown celebrations did not happen until after VJ Day. Even then there were more years of hardship to be endured because of rationing – bread rationing did not begin until July 1946, and rationing did not finish completely until 1954. I can remember being told that sweets were no longer rationed when I was a small child, and things definitely took a turn for the better after that, with the weekly trip to the sweetshop after visiting my gran.
Petrol coupons 1944
1945 celebration party in Cockton’s Yard (ex Ted Cory, evacuee to Cockermouth now living in Australia)
The West Cumberland Times (15.8.1945) reported that all licensed premises could remain open until midnight on the first of the two VJ nights, whilst August 29th saw the arrival of Robert Bros. Zoo-Circus on the Fairfield, where youngsters could enjoy being terrified by seeing ‘man-eating lions and real live rocking horses’. As part of the Victory celebrations it was reported that over 100 children in the Kirkgate area had been entertained in All Saints Church Rooms, enjoying a tea that included ice-cream and jelly. In July 1945 Miss Irene Reid, an eighteen year old brunette, had been chosen as Victory Queen for Cockermouth, and the Cockermouth Welcome Home Fund Committee had been busy with fund-raising activities to help those returning home from the war, and also to ‘help the wives and dependants of those who have paid the supreme sacrifice’.

“In Cockermouth VJ Day was celebrated with bonfires, fireworks, illuminations and singing and dancing in the streets. From the Moor four bonfires could be seen burning merrily … In Main Street a large crowd sang and danced to the music provided by accordion, played by Mr and Miss Bowman, and a cornet played by Mr Holmes. The much-maligned air-raid shelter in Main Street made an excellent bandstand for the musicians and spectators. Fireworks scattered the crowd with shrieks of joy and terror mixed. A ‘V’ sign in coloured electric lights shone from each side of the Mayo monument, the Globe Hotel and the Town Hall were flood-lit…” (WCT,18.9.1945)
Air raid shelter on Main Street
Billy Bowman’s Band 1930s – his Auntie Florrie Bowman on piano
In July 1945 full street lighting was restored after the black-out of wartime, and Cockermouth Show returned on August 23rd as a Victory Show. A thanksgiving service was held at All Saints Church, and there were children’s sports on the Lands, with tea provided for the children. There was a Thanksgiving Week towards the end of October, a fund-raising event with a target of £100,000 to be raised. A highlight of the week’s activities was the Crowning of the Cockermouth Victory Queen, with Personality and Pin-Up girls in attendance. There was something for everyone with concerts and dances, a fire-fighting display, a cabaret, a children’s fancy dress carnival, a free cinema show, a Thanksgiving Service, and events including the Mechanics’ Band and Billy Bowman’s Dance Band.

Kirkgate Arts & Heritage would love you to get in touch If you or any relatives have any memories of that momentous time!

Gloria Edwards
AN UNOFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE KIRKGATE

The news that Kirkgate’s 30th birthday will be celebrated with a picnic in the Castle grounds has led me on to think about other occasions when The Castle’s been open for Special Events. There’s a photo in Greg Greenhalgh’s very comprehensive history of Amateur Drama in Cockermouth which shows myself, Chris George, and Len Wainwright in one of the first ever CADS shows , the Pyramus and Thisbe “play within a play” from Midsummer Night’s dream, performed in front of the castle. What the picture also shows is the torrential rain which greeted our performance in September 1985 !

Mentioning this to some veteran Cockermouth actors taking part in Workington Playgoers’ Jack and the Beanstalk recently, we had a wonderful wander back down memory lane to the occasion of the first- and subsequent- Georgian Fairs. One feature which the organisers wanted to incorporate was a promenade performance of scenes from 18th century Cockermouth life, in the seldom visited nooks and crannies of the town. Ian Douglas did the research for the first version of this, placing scenes in Cockton’s Yard (The Assessors – a bit like The Watch), This was actually where Geoff Lawley began his acting career, subsequently being the Dame in many a panto. Also in that scene was the late, great Kevin Twigg, whose learning disabilities did not stop him raising thousands of pounds for charity over the years. The Hiring Fair took place where it always had been, in Market Place. The Yard behind Banks’ Ironmongers found the factory children taking a quick break from their dangerous labours. At Wordsworth House William and Dorothy Wordsworth played with appropriately rebellious Fletcher Christian. Small groups of audience were taken around by costumed guides.

Over the course of 3 or 4 fairs this was developed into a narrative which began in the castle, with lots of schoolchildren being given by their schoolmaster (Tony Edwards) a very dry and uninspiring lecture on its history, so boring in fact that he himself fell asleep, and the children ran away. Servants from the Big House (Sue Marshall remembers being one) were then to be seen roaming about the streets, asking all they met if they’d seen those naughty children. There was a re-enactment of the famous story of John Dalton, the colour-blind scientist, sending his mother a pair of red stockings (thinking they were Quaker Grey) and his mother insisting on wearing them to Sunday Meeting, scandalizing other Quaker women. Belinda Hamblin played that scene several times so never got to wear any of the Gorgeous Georgian costumes ! Walking down Waterloo street our audience were harangued by Lord Lowther’s agent using bribery and threats to collect votes in the rotten borough that was Cockermouth. In the final scene, on the terrace in Wordsworth House garden, the mature Wordsworth magically met with his younger self.


And of course, in store at The Kirkgate we still have the wonderful collection of Georgian Costumes made for those events, should anyone fancy reviving this excellent, if short-lived, tradition.

Bob Pritchard

Bob and Mike Ames have generously donated a house concert as a prize in our 30th Anniversary Raffle! So if you’re a fan of Flanders and Swann don’t miss the chance to win your very own concert! Details of the raffle can be found later in the Chronicle…
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.
For April we are catching up with a former member of the staff team at Kirkgate, here’s Caroline Aston to share some of her memories with us.

“The Kirkgate is turning 30? I feel so privileged to be part of its history. I spent two years as Artistic Manager between 2013 and 2015 and was made to feel so welcome.

The Kirkgate is one of those places that’s like a big hug – it welcomes everyone and that is down to the amazing volunteers who are integral to the venue and the community spirit of Cockermouth and West Cumbria.

There are so many lovely memories that I have, from programming of music like Arun Ghosh pictured below (who I’m delighted to see is making a return in November) and Lau, Annabelle Chovstek and The Kennedys, the comedy from talents like Mark Thomas, Laurence Clark and Jo Caulfield and of course the huge variety of films.

But the true heart of The Kirkgate is the community – whether that was the community performing on stage in CAOS or youth theatre productions or the community programming everything that you watch. The building exudes warmth. One of my special memories was in 2014 when we looked back five years after the floods of 2009. Sophia Atcha worked alongside a local college to create a film that brought back memories from that night and made us all thankful for the friends and neighbours we have. Katie Gentry wrote a beautiful song ‘Where the Rivers Meet’ which brought a tear to many an eye.

I loved working there in the cosy office alongside Kate, Gilli and Jocelyn and of course Peter and his whistle was never far away. It was a wrench to leave but personal circumstances took me south and I found myself working at Chichester Festival Theatre and I’m still there today! I live in sunny Bognor Regis and can often be found walking the South Downs, but all this reminiscing is making me realise a visit to Cumbria is long overdue…

Thank you to all the volunteers, staff and audiences at Kirkgate and Arts Out West for making 2013-2015 two very special years of my life.”

Thank you Caroline! Always an absolute pleasure to work with, Chichester are lucky to have you!
A packed auditorium for ‘The Men They Couldn’t Hang’ when they visited for Cockermouth Live in 2014. Caroline was a key member of the Cockermouth Live team alongside her work at Kirkgate Arts.
This month we have an extra addition to ‘Your Kirkgate’. You’ll remember a little while ago that we featured the very first live performance at the Kirkgate Centre in our newsletter. Well, who would’ve thought that 30 years later, on the auditorium reopening night, we would have a guest at our celebration wearing the t-shirt from that very first show! Amanda Dyer, pictured below with Nick Stanley, emailed us to share her memories, which given the last minute painting sound all too familiar! Thankfully no pigeons flying in and out of the roof these days!
“I was on the committee of the Civic Trust when we started our long push to prevent the building from being demolished.  I went on border TV to plead our case – I gave the video of this to the Heritage Group many years ago.  I also ended up on the stage in CADS “Much Ado about Nothing” on the first night the Kirkgate opened to the public.  Rather a tense time as we couldn’t rehearse on the stage as it was being painted and we only got a fire certificate for one night at a time … and on condition that a person stayed downstairs to help evacuate people if required.  The Mayor and other council dignitaries were there – rather ironic as it was they who wanted to demolish it to increase the car parking space!  They originally bought it as a sports venue but decided the old Drill Hall was better for the purpose so they failed to do any maintenance on the building – pigeons were happily flying in and out of the building through holes in the roof.”
Friday 4th April was also the start of our 30th Anniversary celebration events (note the beautiful birthday cake in the photo above!) which are now online and ready for booking.

30th Anniversary Event: Raffle

30 prizes including a private film screening with dinner for two from Wild Zucchinis, a house concert from At The Drop of Another Hippopotamus, bespoke glass art, a voucher for The Kirkstile + a case of beer and many more!
Enter the raffle here
30th Anniversary Event: Picnic at the Castle

With thanks to Lord and Lady Egremont, who we are excited to enjoy the company of, we will be enjoying the surroundings of Cockermouth Castle for a variety of live entertainment, an afternoon tea picnic (from the High Tea Guy) and a glass of prosecco! Castle Tour included, but places are limited so be sure to book now.
more information and tickets for the picnic at the castle
30th Anniversary Event: Film Festival

As part of our 30th Anniversary events we will have a film festival in August where we will show 30 films for every year the Kirkgate has been open. Each film will have a local interest or connection to the area and your pass will provide you with one free ticket to each film. Titles to be announced soon…
Get your film festival pass here
30th Anniversary Event: Party

Join us at The Kirkgate for a New Orleans speakeasy style celebration with the 1920s swing jazz band Alligator Gumbo, there’ll be food with a Cajun twist and you’ll have a final chance to buy your 30th birthday raffle tickets.
This a chance to celebrate 30 years of The Kirkgate in style, so put on your fanciest frocks, invite all your friends and get ready to groove the night away.
more information and tickets to the party!
EMMA’S LETTER
It’s been quite a month! I think my job description might need some updating, after joining in with the painting alongside my usual work I will be including ‘high level redecoration operative’ in my skill set.

I am so proud of our team for managing to open on time, despite the inevitable set backs along the way. We had some substantial reinforcement work to complete on the roof above the stage to enable the stage lighting rig to be hung, one of the many less glamorous but essential parts of the work we have done. Thanks to the advice of Tom Short at WDS Ltd, and the incredibly swift joinery from John Skelton and his colleagues, we completed the install in good time.

Now we are (tentatively!) exploring the new flexibility the lighting give us for performances, and other events in the auditorium. Under the guidance of Nick, our resident stage lighting guru! I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy…



The new lighting desk will take a little getting used to, but with colour changing lights (not just on the stage!) and even moving fixtures we will soon be creating dynamic effects at the touch of a button.

I’m also excited that we can now share our 30th Anniversary celebration events with you all, particularly the Picnic at the Castle, where the Civic Trust are also offering the chance to join them on a guided walk. A rare opportunity to see inside the castle, with expert knowledge on hand.

Do join us to celebrate, and start looking forward to the next 30 years of Kirkgate Arts & Heritage.

Emma Heys
Chief Executive