Here, Robin Longbottom examines how one community excelled when it came to providing entertainment before cinema, radio and television

BEFORE the advent of cinema, radio and television, if Victorian and Edwardian communities wanted entertainment they had to make it themselves – and many did so with great enthusiasm.

Although one of the smaller villages in South Craven, Steeton excelled when it came to community groups.

It had an orchestral society, a theatre group and two choirs, one of which – the Steeton Male Voice Choir – has thrived through to the present day.

Although a venue could be problematical there was a choice, depending on the production, of at least three in the village – the Methodist Chapel in Chapel Lane, the Mechanics Institute at the top of Elmsley Street and the village school.

The Steeton Orchestral Society had been founded in the late 19th century and consisted of an orchestra made-up of local musicians.

Although they were only a small society, they were accomplished enough to attract well-known solo musicians and vocal artistes to accompany their performances.

When the Mechanics Institute was opened, amid much pomp and ceremony, on May 7, 1900, the Steeton Orchestral Society “gave a miscellaneous concert, at which Miss Maud Sugden, Miss Kay and Mr Tom Child appeared as vocalists”.

Miss Sugden, a well-known soprano, had travelled some distance from Thornton, near Bradford, whilst Miss Kay – who sang contralto – lived nearby in Keighley. Both ladies were much sought-after soloists for both public and private events. Many years later Miss Kay recalled that the private functions of local industrialists often continued late into the night and ended with “champagne flowing out of the carriage doors” as guests departed.

Mr Child, the most famous Yorkshire tenor of the day, had come over from Calverley, near Leeds.

In May, 1909, the Steeton Choir travelled to London to perform at Alexandra Palace. Eighteen-year-old Lena Baldwin, of Elmsley Street, Steeton, recorded the event on a postcard to her aunt: “Dear Aunt, I am spending May time in London with the choir and we are going to sing at the Palace.”

Plays were also performed by both the villagers and by groups from the surrounding area.

In about 1910 the ladies and girls of the village put on a performance of a popular play called A Yorkshire Village Wedding. The characters were played by an all-female cast and the dialogue was in Yorkshire dialect.

Dialect plays were extremely popular and in January, 1915, two were performed in the hall at St Stephen’s School.

The first was called A Rum and Tea Doo in which a group of women gather for an afternoon cup of tea and are offered “a little drop from a brown jug”. One by one they all succumb, Mrs Clarke being the last to surrender, “ah nivver touch it at home fro year end to year end. Bud if t’others are havin’ a drop, ah’m noan bahn to be t’odd un aht.” As the afternoon wears on they proceed to tear apart the reputations of the local doctor and other village worthies.

T’Kal ‘Oil was the second play and takes place in the cobblers shop of old Sam Sidebotham.

It opens with the arrival of Tom Earby and Dozee Berry and a discussion about how shoe soles and heels are worn down, particularly those of “T’timbertoed uns that walks like hens”.

Whilst in the first play the women were having tea and rum, in the second one the men were roasting potatoes on the stove and having “pertates an’ ale”.

Although the years following the end of the First World War saw a decline in musical and theatrical societies the Steeton Male Voice Choir, founded in 1908, has continued to be a presence in the village.