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My latest guest for Wiv Chat was at first something of a reluctant interviewee. Not in an obstructive and personal capacity - far from it; simply that he seemed surprised when approached about the idea of sitting down for an informal chat about his life in Wivenhoe.

“What, me? I’m not sure that I have anything of interest for you…”

How wrong you were, Sir. How wrong.

I have known Lewis Footring informally for a few months now. We’ve had chats whilst he has been out walking his adorable border collie down by the Quay. We’ve shared a couple of pints at The Greyhound.

Small snapshots have emerged of his rich life story - snippets about hang gliding over North Essex, a mention of time at sea and a flirting reference to the legendary Wivenhoe Arts Club.

None of these came across in a boastful manner, simply a rather proud gent who doesn’t want to go around shouting about all that he has achieved. Lewis plays his cards close to his chest. I like his style.

I just had a hunch though that there was perhaps something about Lewis and his Wivenhoe treasure trove of memories. Here’s an interesting character, I thought. I bet he has some wonderful banter to share.

I wasn’t wrong.

A friendly tip off by someone rather close in Lewis’ life filled in a few sketchy details. My task was to convince Lewis that he was worthy of a chat, and then to fill in the missing pieces in the timeline.

Lewis arrived around at my house early one evening, a bottle of beer in hand, and tales of how he has passed through the place that @AnnaJCowen and I now call our home many decades ago.

A sense of the personal meets the more grand posturing historical perspective - this is exactly what fascinates me about local and oral history. Tales were told off the record about the history of the house and how it once looked.

We’re in for a good conversation here I thought as the beer was opened and Lewis composed himself to tell some of the many Wivenhoe stories he has stored up over the years.

We got off to a good start when Lewis hit upon the theme of Wivenhoe being a relatively classless society. This was indeed the very reason that first brought him to these parts during the early ’60.

A bachelor pad was sourced - not my house - and I got the impression that Lewis led a rather agreeable lifestyle during his very early years in Wivenhoe.

We then moved on to the social scene, and soon we were talking about the old Brewery Tavern, based where Brook Street meets Anglesea Road. Lewis spoke of a boozer where the banter was as much about art and philosophy, as it was about who was doing what with whom around the village.

I picked up the possibility where this conversation might be heading. Lewis is an astute fella with a fine knack of storytelling. I knew that he had previously had some involvement with the Wivenhoe Arts Club of the 60′s and 70′s, but no idea in what kind of capacity.

Very cleverly, and with little prompting from me, Lewis was telling in great detail how the Arts Club came about after a series of exhibitions and connections made in the Brewery Tavern.

None of this conversation was pre-planned - certainly not by me, but I get the impression that Lewis sensed where we were heading, and very cleverly laid out the timeline of the Arts Club, woven in with some wonderful detail of personal stories around Wivenhoe.

Facts emerged that I was completely unaware of: for all the anarchic and revolutionary spirit that seems to have been built up about the myth that is the Wivenhoe Arts Club, the official 1966 opening was actually undertaken by a Tory grandee!

The 70′s and early ’80s were then played out as we continued to drink, and continued to discuss the social history of the Arts Club as told through some personal tales.

But then all good things come to an end. We concluded this section with the Arts Club ending in the early ’80s, as well as our own booze for the evening running dry.

I asked Lewis if he still gets nostalgic when he walks up Anglesea Road and past Ballast Quay House. His piercing blue eyes lit up and I detected an immense feeling of both pride and fondness for all that has passed at the Wivenhoe Arts Club.

The interview carried on, but for brevity, and hyperlocal reasons, I have edited out a large chunk - for now, anyway. For the record, Lewis found himself in the Falkland Islands during the conflict of ’82, and then bizarrely back in Wivenhoe running an Antiques Shop where Cannsdale & Ross and Alfie the Barber currently trade from.

We didn’t even get the chance to touch upon Lewis’ knowledge of sheep shearing; his butcher skills or even hang gliding. And so from out of a reluctant interviewee, hopefully we have here a genuine hyperlocal historical tale of the town to tell.

The point has been made to me that so far I have been homing in on the more obvious characters that make up the social strata of Wivenhoe society. I have no arguments with this - all the interviewees so far have been fine company and relevant to what I am trying to achieve.

But poke around through the less obvious landmarks in Wivenhoe and I’m sure that the town still has many unique stories such as Lewis’ that are there to explore.

I think I’m going to enjoy this experience.

As a footnote - and a considerable one at that - here’s what Nicholas Butler has to say about the Arts Club in his epic The Story of Wivenhoe. Much of Butler’s observations match up with the account given by Lewis:

“They [Wivenhoe artists] exhibited locally, especially at the Brewery Tavern, which was run for many years by Roy Cross’s elder brother, Jack.

It was only logical that sooner or later all this talent would be brought together under one roof. The impetus came from Ballast Quay, for even as George Gale was helping to found the Wivenhoe Society, he was also planning to create an arts club in the former stables and coach-house of his new home, where Wivenhoe could meet the dons from the new University and he could entertain his friends.

These outbuildings form three sides of a square. Two of these wings became an L-shaped club, with a bar and exhibition gallery in one of them, and a kitchen, lavatories and snooker table in the other. The third was converted into a bungalow for Mar Gale’s mother. On 15th October 1966, the Rt. Hon Edward Heath M.P. opened the Wivenhoe Arts Club.

John and Pamela Dan, Jack, Roy and Gail Cross, Tony Young and Michael Heard were all long-serving members of this club. It also attracted people from the larger new houses in the town, a convivial don or two, and some locals, including Mr. David Clarke, the curator of the Castle Museum, and Dr. and Mrs. William Dean. George Gale was the first chairman of the club, Jack Cross the first secretary.

The visual arts came foremost, but there were dances, quizzes, jumble sales, and entertainment of various kinds. The annual Gallery Gaieties, a home talent night, usually included specially written verses by David Clark and a skit, written and directed by Jack Cross, which sent up, yet deferred to, the management.

The opening years were rowdy and some undesirable elements had to be ejected; then the enterprise settled down as an arts and social club for two hundred people and as such it remained. As far as this went it was pleasant enough, but for its own sake and that of the town it should have gone much further. The courtyard within the outbuildings should have been given a roof and turned into an assembly hall, while Farmer Bowes next door would have surely sold some of his own outbuildings for squash courts and the like.

The ostensible reason for this lack of progress was that George Gale would never give the club a lease of more than one year. The members knew this perfectly well; they should have pressed for expansion or gone elsewhere. They never did. The lethargy of the sixties hung heavily over this establishment.

Yet the club did have many a good exhibition. I remember one of cartoons organised by George Gale himself; almost every national newspaper, and many local ones, were represented, while at one there loomed Gerald Scarfe’s Chairman Mao in the likeness of a club armchair.

Towards the end of the seventies the club went into decline. The relationship between landlord and tenants, always slightly uneasy, now flared into open rebellion as the peasants refused to dance to the squire’s tune. Mr Gale moved to Tattingstone, but his club remained for a while until his successor as landlord managed to oust it on the pretext of turning the buildings into a health resort.

Deprived of premises, the club might have expanded into new ones. Instead, it toyed vaguely with the idea of moving into the basement of the Co-operative Supermarket and finally expired with a party and exhibition at the Old Rectory on Saturday, 24th March, 1984. Thus ended the Wivenhoe Arts Club, as vague and amiable as anything that ever came out of the sixties.” (1)

(1) Nicholas Butler., ‘The Story of Wivenhoe‘, pp 339-341.

As mentioned in the interview with Lewis, very few public pictures of the Arts Club have been published. Butler includes one photo of an “unknown” couple.” They look very much of the time…

I am aware however of a number of private collections. I get the impression that the high spirits of the club perhaps is the reason as to why these images rightly remain private.

One image however has very kindly been shared by Marika Footring. Lewis makes reference to this in the audio above. I am happy - *very* happy - to share any other images online, should past Arts Club members want to open up their memories.

The above artwork depicts:

Front row l to r:
Kevin O’Malley, Brian Stapleton, John Motteram (seated), Jack Cross, George Gale, Roy Cross (kneeling)

Second row r to l:
Lewis Footring, Michael Heard, John Dan, Louis Claiborne, David Clarke, Billy Gillespie, John Holden

Back row l to r:
Chris Last, Bob Richardson, Hugh Bostock, David Dignum, William Dean, John Guest, Tony Rhodes, Derek Hawkins

Head on pikes (expelled members) l to r
Ted Gittens, Dennis Wirth-Miller

Far Right over the back: Tony Young

Nicholas Butler meanwhile will be back in Wivenhoe on the afternoon of 27th August, for the official unveiling of the blue plaque for his late mother, the actress Joan Hickson.

Copies of The Story of Wivenhoe, I believe, are still available behind the counter with a wink and a nod at the Wivenhoe Bookshop. It remains an essential read.

Following on from the interview and I have since come across a series of Wivenhoe Arts Club related quotes, carried out I believe as part of a similar oral history project (not Sea Change.)

These add further detail to the story, and are certainly worthy of sharing online in edited highlights:

Pam Dan:

“The pub [The Brewery Tavern] was mainly frequented by the Shipyard workers, but it didn’t take long for Jack and Pat [Cross] to attract a wider clientele. The art-type people used to meet in there for the discussion of art, life and everything. A certain amount of alcohol was consumed during these conversations!”

Roy Cross and Gail Cross came up from London, loved Wivenhoe and came to live in a house on Anchor Hill. And yet more artists arrived. Tony Young with his wife Sally who’d come for a visit, fallen in love with the place and stayed. Then Mike and Angela Heard.

George Gale was now on the scene. George was an influential journalist at the Daily Express with many useful connections to the great and the good. He had arrived recently in search of a house in the country, found it at Ballast Quay and moved in. Introduced to the Brewery by Roy and Gail who had known him from the Chelsea Arts Club, he quickly became a regular.

When he discovered that Jack and Pat were thinking of giving up, he made a proposal. The outbuildings of Ballast Quay would be converted to an Arts Club.

On 5th November we had a bonfire and fireworks display which was open to all. Originally, there was some suspicion of these arty farty people, but finally half the village used to come up. There was hot soup and food, whilst the clubhouse and bar was open to all. It became a village event.

From the very beginning, the Arts Club established a link with the University. At the opening, Roy Cross presented a very large painting of a nude. Lewis did the framing and that was his donation. The painting was hung on the stairwell of Wivenhoe House. I’d love to know where that is now…

The local doctors were members. Ted Atkinson and John Doubleday, both sculptors, joined. Louis Claiborne arrived in the village. Louis was an American lawyer who had recently been Asst. Attorney General. His wife Jackie was Pat Gael’s (George’s wife) sister.

Francis Bacon was a not infrequent visitor though we never managed to get any of his work on our walls!”

A scribbling from an unknown source in the margin of the notes passed my way simply reads:

“He was eventually banned, basically for being an obnoxious prat!”

Pam Dan:

“When George Gale sold up and moved from Wivenhoe to Tattingstone Hall, the Coach House Cottage and the Arts Club premises were sold to a University lecturer, Tim Dunmore and his wife Helen. The long battle to get us out began.

There were anonymous reports to the police of out of hours drinking! To be honest, that was often the case, but on the edge of the village, no one was bothered. Ultimately the Dunmores were the victors. The Arts Club lost its premises. Some discussions took place with the Co-op who were prepared to lease us their lower storage area, but somehow none of the members could muster much enthusiasm. The magic had gone.

It was the summer of my life. We were in the right place, at the right time. We were young. We had energy. We all had children and in fine weather we would all sit out in the courtyard enjoying the glorious sun.”

Heady days, it seems. Heady days.

Now then - about that Wivenhoe Arts Club pt II…

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