Red bricks and radicals: the beginning stages of the Todmorden Hippodrome (1908 – 1911)

Library assistant’s image: Todmorden Hippodrome’s proscenium stage set-up for

the Todmorden Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society’s production of Little

Women, performed 16 – 19 Feb 2022

Todmorden Hippodrome, known locally and lovingly as “the Hip”, is a stately looking red brick building on Halifax Road. It has, and continues to, house popular plays from Shakespeare to contemporary drama, musical theatre and operettas to burlesque. Many amateur and professional entertainers have stood on the slightly sloped stage. Stan Laurel, for example, trod its boards, and comedian Ken Dodd was one of its Patrons for many years. The venue can even be hired for weddings and civil ceremonies! Primarily, though, the Hip is all about entertainment made for, and by, the local community.

Prior to its opening in October 1908, however, theatre-making activity had taken occurred in places such as: the short-lived Victoria Theatre in Salford, Todmorden; Oddfellows Hall; and within Todmorden Town Hall where, in 1899, ‘a proscenium [stage] and accessories for the performance of stage plays’ was inserted (Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter, Friday 22 September 1899, p.7).

Less than a decade later, Richard Dewhirst, owner of Dewhirst & Sons printers, publishers, and stationers, began the construction of the “New” Hippodrome in 1908. No stranger to playmaking, according to The Era – a national paper referred to at the time as “the actors bible” that ran from 1837 until the end of the second world war – Dewhirst had previously been involved with the Victoria Theatre in 1881 as a lessee. Construction took place over the spring and summer of 1908.

‘The place was practically built’ – lessons in retrospective planning by Richard Dewhirst! ‘The Todmorden Hippodrome. Licence granted conditionally.’ Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter, Friday 26 June 1908, p.5.

The architects were Sutcliffe and Sutcliffe, and the original, rather aesthetically pleasing, blueprints for the building can be seen on Todmorden Amateur Operatic and Dramatic society’s website: https://www.todhip.org/history-of-the-hippodrome

During construction there was an accident involving John Mellor, a plasterer, who fell from the roof of the Hippodrome. (Are you a relative? We’d love to know what happened next to poor John.)

The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, Saturday 29 August 1908, p.9

The Hip officially opened on Monday 5 October 1908 with its ‘considerable frontage to Halifax Road … seating for 1,600 [with a] well equipped stage with a fire-proof curtain and the necessary dressing rooms for the artistes’ (from ‘Todmorden Hippodrome. Preparation for the opening’ Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter Friday 2 October 1908, p.3).

 ‘Opening of Todmorden Hippodrome’ Halifax Evening Courier Wednesday 7 October 1908 p.3.

The opening performance was also listed on the 5 October 1908 in The Stage, the newspaper and journal for theatre news and reviews in the UK.

A couple of months after the Hip officially opened, Dewhirst applied for a music licence that would have allowed for music on “sacred days” (Sunday, Christmas Day, and Good Friday). The answer was, unsurprisingly, a resounding no.

‘MUSIC LICENCE FOR THE HIPPODROME REFUSED’, The Todmorden Advertiser, Friday 4 December 1908, p.8.

From the end of 1908 and in 1909 there were glowing reviews in the local news for shows such as A Royal Divorce, The Merry Widow, and The Merchant of Venice. The Era, which listed productions “in the provinces”, wrote a warm review of the pantomime Sinbad the Sailor with ‘Miss Lily Simms [making] a dashing and handsome Sinbad’, ‘Miss Dolly Andrews a dainty principal girl’, comic villains ‘Messrs. Rand and O’Ryan’s … quips and cranks calling forth loud applause’, and featuring a ‘well received’ acrobatic troupe (The Era Saturday 12 March 1910, p. 11. More reviews can be seen in this newspaper via the British Newspaper Archive from our digital collection www.calderdale.gov.uk/v2/residents/leisure-and-culture/libraries/digital-library accessible for free in the library).

Nationally, and internationally, the first few decades of the twentieth century were tumultuous. In England, women fought for their right to vote, the power and force of the British Empire was waning, and the mood in Europe grew increasingly darker. The threat of a global war was becoming less of an idea and more of an inevitability. The British Left movement during this period held meetings and debates around military action, forced conscription, and anti-armaments.

Forced conscription was not introduced in England until 1914 – when the First World War was in full force. In October 1910, however, the ‘murderous craze of war’ was condemned at a meeting of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) to a ‘moderate audience’ at the Hip. At the heart of the discussion was the ‘blood-tax on labour’ and the profitability of munitions and ‘militarianism…profitable to certain financial interests’. Many of these assertions were greeted with ‘hear hear’ by the audience and those representing the ILP (‘Anti-Armament Meeting at Todmorden. Conscription condemned’ Todmorden and District News, Friday 4 November 1910, pp. 6 – 7).

To learn more about the anti-war and Independent Labour Movement in Calderdale in the early twentieth century see: Keith Laybourn and David James ‘The Rising Sun of Socialism’: The Independent Labour Party in the Textile District of the West Riding of Yorkshire between 1890 and 1914 (329.94 lending and reference, Central Library); Jonathan Timbers Resistance to the War (World War One): The Independent Labour Party in Hebden Royd and the Sowerby Bridge Division in 1914 and 1915 (P 940.4, reference only in Central Library);  and Halifax Independent Labour’s production The Record (P 329, reference only in Central Library).

In 1911, Richard Dewhirst declared bankruptcy and the building was sold to the Hartleys (possibly Herbert Hartley who owned Nelson Palace in Nelson, Blackburn – if you know more, do let us know!).

For a fuller account of the histories of theatre making in Todmorden and of the Hippodrome see Freda & Malcom Heywood’s Todmorden Hippodrome: One Hundred Years of Theatre 1908 – 2008. Upper Calder Valley Publications: Todmorden. This book is is available from various branches of the library service under shelf number 942.746 HEY.

If you’re interested in local performance and theatre making, these two articles may whet your appetite: A. Porritt’s ‘The Old Halifax Theatre, 1789-1904’, Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society (1956), pp. 17 – 30, and Kate Taylor’s ‘Theatre in Halifax c1750-1840’, Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society (2002), pp. 58-67.

Halifax gets a mention in Dave Russell’s chapter ‘Popular entertainment, 1776-1895’ In Joseph Donahue (Ed.) (2004) The Cambridge History of British Theatre. Volume 2: 1660 – 1895. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 368 – 387 (792.0941 MIL, lending). This collection covers a general history British theatre over the centuries.

Finally, dedicated volunteers at the Hip are currently compiling an archive of shows, actors, set plans, building design blueprints, and other media. If you can help with identifying photographs of actors and shows, then get in touch with the society: https://todhip.org/contact