May 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the May edition of the newsletter. 

The Coronation of King Charles III has now passed into the annals of history, our votes have been cast in the local elections and the sound of bat on ball can be heard on the Recreation Ground. Summer must be just around the corner!

The work of the Trust continues. An initial enquiry form has been logged with the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This is a precursor to a formal application for match funding to complement our grant from the Community Ownership Fund. We hope to submit our full application before the end of May. 

A photographer visited the Pavilion in April and has taken some superb photographs including some aerial shots from a drone. Be sure to look out for a sample of these photos in upcoming issues.

On 21st April the Pavilion was visited by Gillian Keegan M.P., amongst others, to find out what is happening with the Pavilion and undertake a brief tour inside and outside the building. You can watch the video of Gillian’s visit here.

The Hailsham Pavilion

No doubt many of you will have glanced at the photograph above this paragraph and thought that this is just another view of the Pavilion. 

In one way your assumption would be correct as the building is called the Pavilion but it is located in Hailsham, East Sussex rather than Selsey. It was built in 1921 and the façade looks similar to the Selsey Pavilion constructed eight years earlier. The Pavilion in Hailsham fell upon hard times and closed. However, thanks to the Hailsham Old Pavilion Society it has been restored and reopened. 

This is a scenario that we hope that the Selsey Pavilion Trust will be able to replicate. Please click here if you wish to find out more about the heart warming story of the Hailsham Pavilion.

Keeping theatre alive

In our April edition I drew your attention to the fact that our friends at Arts Dream Selsey are working hard to maintain live theatre in Selsey. Gillian Plowman has written two plays to be staged in St Peter’s Hall in the near future. 

The first play is entitled “The Busters” and will be performed on Saturday 3rd June at 7-30pm and Sunday 4th June at 2-30pm. 

The second play is entitled “A Sea Change” and will be performed on Friday 30th June and Saturday 1st July at 7-30pm.

Tickets at £10 are available from Brent Lodge Charity Shop or online here.

This month’s Past Pavilion takes another look back into 1953.  There were some great films to view on the silver screen. 

Keith Batchelor, Vice-Chair

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Past Pavilion

Two films come under the spotlight in this issue. Both were released in 1952 and screened at the Pavilion a year later.

Pavilion, Selsey

"ROAD TO BALI" the sixth of the popular "Road" series, comes to the Pavilion, Selsey, to-morrow (Sunday) for four days. The story concerns two second-rate variety artists played by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope who flee to Australia to avoid weddings. They arrive broke and hungry at Port Darwin where they meet an unscrupulous South Sea island prince, portrayed by Murvyn Vye who hires them to dive for treasure off an island somewhere on the road to Bali. The shady character conveniently forgets to mention that all other divers who have attempted to get the treasure have been strangled by a giant squid.

Bognor Regis Observer 22/8/1953

Pavilion. Selsey 

THE "IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST" brings Michael Redgrave back to the screen in the lightest of comedies, with Michael Denison teamed as his friend. There is the allure of Joan Greenwood as the sophisticated London temptress; the exciting newness of 21-year-old Dorothy Tutin, the comedy of Margaret Rutherford as an elderly spinster secretly in love with Miles Malleson and the regal grandeur of Dame Edith Evans as the formidable Lady Bracknell. Many people believe this to be one of the funniest comedies. Wilde himself was one of the wittiest conversationalists the British Isles have ever known; yet in none of his other writings is the wit and invention of so high a quality. Only in this play does he escape the laboured melodrama of the period, providing instead the very quintessence of nonsense, in a concoction as full of laughs and bubbles as champagne.

Bognor Regis Observer 27/11/1953

The next issue will begin a two-part journey looking at the enormous contribution made by a husband and wife team who provided entertainment at the Pavilion, and elsewhere, over a number of decades.

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