“Eastcote and District choir folds after 25 years.”   Or does it?

After the Messiah concert on 11th April 1970 Millicent Ward, who founded the choir,  retired,  insisting that the name should be retired too.  Some founder members also retired;  Ralph King,  secretary for 22 years, said it was a good time to disband, however he added:   “It will leave quite a gap in the community”. Younger members wanted to carry on and  regretted losing the name and its traditions,  but perhaps it was better to make a fresh start under a new name.  And find a new conductor.

 

“We began the choir to get us all over the war”

In April 1945, an astonishing 132 people came to a meeting in Eastcote Methodist Church, called by renowned soprano Millicent Ward.  80 were selected to form a choir, which became the Eastcote and District choir.  They performed  Handel’s Messiah on December 14th 1946.  It featured over 100 singers, among them around 15 tenors and 24 basses, numbers we can only dream of today.  After that there were Spring concerts every year, and carol concerts from 1949.

 

Raising the roof to raise funds.

Over the 25 years of Millicent Ward’s leadership the choir raised more than £1,000 charity.  One stand-out  event was  Merrie England, performed on 3 nights in the grounds of Haydon Hall.   In spite of the poor  weather,  it raised £300 (£972 in today’s money) for the Ruislip-Northwood aged people’s housinsg society.  During that 25 year period, they received grants from the Ruislip-Northwood Arts Council .  In later years Hillingdon Council made periodical grants to the choir. Sadly, this no longer happens.

 

Most exciting years as a performer

Born in Bradford, Millicent was a proud “Yorkshire lass”.  She conducted her first concert with orchestra at 14, and studied for three years at the Royal College of Music in London.  She sang with leading orchestras and conductors all over Britain and on the continent.  Her first radio broadcast was in 1927, and she later sang in Alice in Wonderland on TV.   In 1939 a Canadian tour was cancelled so that she could perform for servicemen in Britain.  She also performed for Navy units in Belgium, Germany and France.  She said these were her most exciting years as a performer.  She started the music side of the Ruislip-Northwood arts festive, was president of the Ruislip-Northwood Schools’ Music Association and vice-president of the Middlesex Schools’ Association. 

 

Regeneration - The Eastcote Choral Society

After Millicent Ward’s retirement, the newly named Eastcote Choral Society held a carol concert under the baton of Arnold Price, who stayed 3 years.  In all, the choir has had 11 conductors.  The second longest serving so far (after Millicent) is our own Robert Jones at 16 years and still going.  Third comes Oliver Broome at 14 years.  Venues have ranged from Field End School and St.Edmund’s Church,  to the Beck Theatre and other local premises.  More recently the choir has drifted west, to Douay Martyrs’ School, Ickenham and Ickenham United Reformed Church.  The traditional repertoire (Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria etc) has broadened to include Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man, Will Todd’s  Mass in Blue and Bob Chilcott’s Little Jazz Mass.

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