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Westwood Works 1903-2003

Westwood Works Musical Society

The WWMS Show was always one of the highlights of the year. Usually staged over one week at the Embassy Theatre in Peterborough, the shows were enjoyed by not only Baker Perkins employees, but hundreds of other people from the surrounding area.

The Shows: (Note: photographs shown with an asterisk depict Company shots)

1930 - 1935
1934: Miss Hook of Holland
1936 - 1959
1936: Belle Of New York	1946: Sunshine Girl	1946: Sunshine Girl	1948: Rose Marie	1948: Rose Marie	1949: The Arcadians	1950 - Rio Rita
1951: The Quaker Girl	1952: Show Boat	1953: New Musical Director	1953: Annie Get Your Gun	1954: The Lilac Domino	1955: Oklahoma!	1956: Zip Goes A Million
1957: Call Me Madam	1958: Love From Judy	1958: Love From Judy*	1959: Me & My Girl

1960 - 1979
1960: South Pacific*	1961: The Pyjama Game*	1962: Brigadoon*	1963: The Music Man*	1964: The King & I	1965: The Desert Rose	1966: Rose Marie
1967: Kismet	1968: Half a Sixpence*	1969: Kiss Me Kate	1970: Chu Chin Chow	1971: Hello Dolly	1972: Guys & Dolls	1973: Annie Get Your Gun
1974: Lilac Time	1975: Hit The Deck	1976: The Desert Song	1976: The King & I	1977: Finian's Rainbow	1978: Gigi*	1979: Camelot
1979: Camelot dancers

1980 onwards
1980: Oklahoma!	1981: Kiss Me Kate	1982: Cabaret*	1983: Bells Are Ringing	1984: Mack & Mabel*	1985: Chicago*	1986: Hello Dolly*
1987: Sugar*	1988: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas*	1989: Annie*	1990: The Pirates of Penzance*	1991: South Pacific*

History of the Westwood Works Musical Society

In 1930, a then very small society put on a production called Money in the Rollerdrome in Peterborough. The following year they put on three shows – Fanny and the Servant Problem, Cupid and the Ogre and The Strange Adventures of Mrs Brown. This was followed in 1932 by Philida, or Love on the Prairie.

With the influx of people from Willesden to Peterborough in 1933 came members of the Willesden Musical Society who, until then, had concentrated mainly on Gilbert and Sullivan productions. The two societies soon got together and, in 1934, put on their first production, Miss Hook of Holland. This was the first big show of the society and was staged in the old Empire Theatre, or The Little Theatre as it was known. The following year there was another big production – The Arcadians.

The society went from strength to strength and by 1938 was ready to move into the newly built Embassy Theatre, being the first amateur society to use the 1,500 seat theatre. The show was Rainbow's End. The new venue was ideal for staging the big, colourful musicals for which the society was becoming well known.

The start of the war in 1939 meant that the production of Jill Darling was the last the society would put on until 1946. It then had to start from scratch and staged a modest production of Sunshine Girl in the St. Paul's Hall. For the next two years it moved to the Elwes Hall with Hit the Deck followed by Rose Marie. However, by 1949 the society was back in the big time with a second production of The Arcadians, again at the Embassy.

Since then the society produced a show every year up to and after 1992 when manufacturing ceased at Westwood Works. It was not unusual for the performances to attract a total weekly audience of as many as 10,000.

Can you help to fill in any missing dates? If so, please see this page for instructions on how to contact us and we'll update the captions.

The Matt Walton Collection

Matt met his future wife, Enid, in Newcastle – at the Clarion Cycling Club. – not long after the end of WW1. Enid had been in a choir and had some acting training as a child. They both performed in a choir at various venues around Newcastle and district and took part in several musical shows on the stage. This section of the Clarion movement became very strong and broke away to form the Peoples Theatre (which is still in existence).

They married in 1929 and Matt found work in Rugby where they became involved in the Percival Guild House with Matt taking leading parts in plays by Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. Enid was accepted into the Rugby Choral Society and sang in many oratorios. In 1933 Matt started work at Baker Perkins and they moved into Willesden Avenue at the same time as the Joseph Baker & Sons employees moved up from Willesden (See also Willesden to Peterborough, Getting to Work and Housing).

Both Matt and Enid were soon taking an active part in the Westwood Works Musical Society and both appeared in "Miss Hook of Holland" in 1934.  Matt was a Committee Member for the Society's first production of "The Arcadians" in 1935 and again in 1936, when he also took a leading part in "The Belle of New York" at the Theatre Royal. However, Enid was involved in her own personal production as it was the year that their daughter Sonja was born and she too was to become an active member of the WWMS in later years, appearing in many of the shows. By 1938 and "Rainbow Inn", Matt had become Assistant Producer and he and the Society trod the boards of the professional stage at the new Embassy Theatre. "Jill Darling" followed in 1939, also at the Embassy.

By the beginning of WW2 they had moved into Grimshaw Road and Matt channelled his energies into war work, working a 12 hour day and sometimes nights. (See also Westwood Works at War). He did find time and energy, however, to run a concert party that performed at the many military camps around Peterborough and also for two years put on Sunday night concerts for the local troops at the Peterborough Town Hall. At this time Enid was on duty with the WVS, producing meals at their canteen in Long Causeway. As accommodation was scarce during the war, the Walton household hosted many artistes who were appearing at the Embassy Theatre.

Matt was largely responsible for re-starting the society after the war, the first post-war WWMS production being "Sunshine Girl" in 1946 in St. Paul's Hall. This marked the start of Matt's great success as a producer for the Society. Shows such as "Hit the Deck" (1947), "Rose Marie" (1948), "The Arcadians" (1949) – one of the many in which Sonja Walton appeared in the chorus - "Rio Rita" (1950), and "The Quaker Girl"(1951) were performed during this period with Enid playing a principal part in most of these shows. By this time the shows were again staged at the Embassy Theatre. The last production for the WWMS with which Matt was involved was "Show Boat" in 1952 as he was transferred back up north as machine shop superintendent at the newly opened Baker Perkins factory at Bedewell, Hebburn-on-Tyne, where he stayed for 17 years.

He was rather frustrated at first at not being able to pursue his stage activities but in the later years did produce several shows for a small company, "The Happy Go Lucky" at the South Shields Pavilion. Enid became a member of the Jarrow Operatic and spent 13 years as a member of the Newcastle Ladies Choir, taking part in several tours abroad and appearances at the Welsh Eisteddfod and on radio and Television.

Matt retired and moved back to Peterborough in early 1969. After a very full and happy retirement surrounded by his family, Matt died in 1989.

1935: The Arcadians
1936: The Belle of New York
1937: Geisha Girl
1938: Rainbow Inn
1939: Jill Darling
1946: Sunshine Girl
1947: Hit the Deck
We have no images for this show yet
1948: Rose Marie
1949: The Arcadians
1950: Rio Rita
1951: Quaker Girl
1952: Show Boat
1945: Matt in Drag for a VE Day Party	1947: The Full Company of the 8 o'clock Revue	1979: Matt's 50th Wedding Anniversary Party at Alma Road Clubhouse