Web design © Graeme de Lande Long. Terms & Conditions.
Community Website
Scaynes Hill Village
The creative spirit behind these productions was Vera Cumberlege, a local JP, who both wrote the scripts and music as well as helped with the direction. The Cumberleges didn't live in Scaynes Hill but they attended the church here and the cast of these plays often included several members of the family, including their children. One of them, Paddy, who now lives in Newick still has his mother's scrapbook containing photos, newspaper cuttings and other memorabilia recording these remarkable events, from which the material in this article has been taken.
The St. George pantomime was the spectacular centre piece of a fair with St. George, played by a visiting American army officer, mounted on a real horse that entered 'the stage' by jumping over a hedge. The Dragon had the most amazingly elaborate costume that like the traditional pantomime horse required two actors, one for the front legs and the other for the back ones. The play, adapted from Kenneth Grahame's story by the same name, was set in Scaynes Hill in about 1800 with costumes to match, although St. George had a suit of armour from centuries earlier. When the dragon was seen on Chailey Common with smoke pouring from its nostrils the villagers were up for a fight to slay it. However, the dragon turned out to be a bit of a pacifist and agreed to be 'vanquished' by St. George if the villagers stopped their practice of cock-fighting.
Like all pantomimes there was a happy ending with a banquet for all and a finale comprising the song "Home to Bed", the words of which included reference to many well known Scaynes Hill families, such as the Luckens, Mains & Hawses. To hear the tune click on the note icon below. Copies of the song (click here) were sold during the fair, which also had many other stalls and attractions, including a magic show by the vicar, Dr. Box. The Fair was opened by the former British heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Farr and there was much thanks for all who had contributed to the organisation and especially to the Hawes family for providing the venue. The Fair continued for two days, so it must have been a major event in the village.
St. George at Henfield Place in 1952
In the summer of 1952 a magnificent production of a pantomime pageant entitled "St. George and the Reluctant Dragon" was staged in the garden of Henfield Place, Scaynes Hill in order to raise funds to help meet the expenses of St.Augustine's Church. It was to be the beginning of a long series of morality plays put on annually by a group that became known as the Scaynes Hill Church Players.
The plays were staged initially in Scaynes Hill only, but they became so popular that they also had showings in Haywards Heath, Cuckfield, Ardingly, Horsted Keynes, Wivelsfield and Twineham as well as even being performed by a local youth group in the Presbyterian Church in Accra, Ghana.
Scaynes Hill Church Players (1952-65)
30 Sep Posted by Graeme de Lande Long
In subsequent years the Scaynes Hill players produced on an annual basis a series of morality, passion and nativity plays with such titles as "Come & Behold Him", "St. Nicholas", "David Son of Jesse", "The Way to Bethlehem", "He Came unto His Own", "Crown of Glory" and "The Shepherds and the Wise Men". Through connections that the Cumberlege family had with the pre-independence Ghanaian colonial civil service the play "Come & Behold Him" was also performed on Christmas Eve 1957 by the Youth of Adabraka at the Presbyterian Church in Accra. An interesting collection of photos, programmes and newspaper cuttings about some of these productions in St. Augustine's Church and elsewhere have been included in an album on the website Gallery.
Youth of Adabraka, Accra
