PICTURE PAST: March 14, 1969 – Playhouse Theatre reopening date revealed

Published: 4:00 PM March 16, 2019 Updated: 11:07 PM October 27, 2020

Weston Sea Cadets annual awards. The Mayor (Cllr. P.F. Hess) presenting the Hill Memorial Trophy to Cadet Stephen Edwards watched by other award winners. Picture: WESTON MERCURY - Credit: Archant

A completion date for the new Playhouse Theatre was revealed in the Weston Mercury and Somerset Herald 50 years ago.

The Weston Girls Grammar School Hockey XI, unbeaten this season and without a goal scored against them. Members are Susan Langstone, Margaret Overy, Susan Hatcher, Heather Glennie, Sally Hargest, Gillian Croston, Natelie Booth, Betty Stoodley, Deidre Walton, Margaret Short, Linda Young (captain, holding trophy) and Miriam Barber (reserve) Picture: WESTON MERCURY - Credit: Archant

Locating enough burial spaces were proving to be a problem in one village 50 years ago, the Mercury reported.

Winscombe Parish Council approved its plans to look for more graveyard space for the village and nearby Sandford.

However it declined to sanction the application for a loan until prices were known.

– The new Playhouse Theatre was scheduled for completion on May 19, with the opening night planned for July 7.

The Matron of Weston-super-Mare's General Hospital talking to some of the girls who attended a one day conference on practical nursing at Weston. Picture: WESTON MERCURY - Credit: Archant

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Although work had been falling behind schedule, there was an improvement in March.

The corporation’s general manager Mr B H Flavell told the Mercury: “The stage steelwork is being constructed and looks quite impressive, but the place still looks in a pretty chaotic state.

“The great problem for the contractors is that things are on top of each other. They are trying to use each piece of floor space for two things.”

The Playhouse had been destroyed in a fire in August 1964.

The topping-out ceremony, 130 feet up on the roof of Weston Technical College. The £874,027 building is expected to be opened to three and a half thousand full-time and part-time students in January next year. Picture: WESTON MERCURY - Credit: Archant

– Weston’s most expensive and tallest building – the new Weston Technical College, which is 130-feet high and cost almost £900,000 to build – hosted its ‘topping-out’ ceremony.

The building cost £874,027 to build and was expected to open to 3,500 students in January 1970.

Work began in mid-1967 and it was the second largest college in the country at the time.

The chairman of Somerset County Council and chairman of Cementation Group of Companies (CGC) performed the ‘topping-out’ ceremony.

The topping-out ceremony, 130 feet up on the roof of Weston Technical College. The £874,027 building is expected to be opened to three and a half thousand full-time and part-time students in January next year. Picture: WESTON MERCURY - Credit: Archant

The CGC chairman Henry Longden said at the time: “Nearly everybody working on the site comes from Weston. You could say it was built by Weston people for Weston people. This, I think, is the way it should be.”

The feature was described as a ‘long overdue feature’ to be added to the area to benefit youngsters’ education.

– Weston’s Hotels and Restaurant Association presented a cheque for £100 for the town to buy more seafront illuminations.

The money was handed to the town’s mayor at the association’s annual meeting. The latest boost meant almost £900 had been donated to the town for the lights in five years.