The aims of the Newton Abbot and District Society of Arts.

A History of the
Newton Abbot and District Society of Arts
“NADSA”

[The following article was published in the Mid Devon Advertiser on January 26th 1996 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NADSA. It is by Colin Power, President of NADSA. A history of the following eight years is currently being written!]

We have a splendid music tradition in this country and small groups of music-makers contribute their part to the varied pattern. NADSA is one of many societies nationally that brings live music to areas where it is not otherwise available or where there is a recognised demand. The creation of such a society 50 years ago was not accidental. At that time World War II had just ended and, as a consequence, it was possible to respond to the many aspirations that had surfaced during those six years. Expectation of a cultural life different from the 1930s was evident.

In music, the famous National Gallery concerts had been attended by thousands during wartime; cultural activities for men and women in HM Forces and in the factories were over-subscribed as a matter of course. The planning for peace certainly included Willam Beveridge and social welfare and R. A. Butler and education, but also, a little way down the list, emerged the Arts Council of Great Britain, complete with official status and government finance.

Luminaries

Public expectation 50 years ago and Arts Council achievement now may provide a wide spectrum from realisation to disappointment, but in this tiny corner of the United Kingdom we can at least claim the Arts Council was responsible for the birth of NADSA. On Thursday, January 31, 1946, a meeting was sponsored by the Arts Council and attended by Cyril Wood, its representative in the South West. It was also attended by a number of Newton Abbot luminaries, as will be evident from a re-reading of the Mid Devon Advertiser published on the following Saturday.

In those more expansive days, our local newspaper could cheerfully devote a couple of columns to such an event, and endearingly include in parenthesis (hear, hear), (laughter) and (a voice) to provide a flavour unfamiliar to our palates now.

There you will not only read of the first meeting of NADSA, but older Newtonians could find their own early years suddenly illuminated by familiar names - Mr Norman Roberts, Mr W. Gordon Brewer, Headmaster Rogers, and others.

Well the resolutions were passed, NADSA was formed, and is about to celebrate the event 50 years later. Incidentally the meeting claimed that Newton Abbot did not possess even a half-decent concert piano - we still do not! But we do have the Community Centre hall instead of the old St Mary's Hall. NADSA has developed primarily as a society promoting music. It began life with wider objectives, embracing more of those activities suggested by its title. Art films were shown. picture exhibitions were occasionally held at the old Art school. Since those exhibitions were put together by the Arts Council and hired out to a number of venues in the South West it must have been a mammoth undertaking. The Arts Council's Cyril Wood had been a BBC producer and he toured a delightful amalgam of words and music called 'Family at Home'.

Many talks on art subjects were arranged for members' meetings and a surprising wealth of knowledge was mined locally for this purpose. Nowadays that feature of NADSA's activities is much more effectively undertaken by the Teignbridge branch of NADFAS at its well-attended monthly meetings in the Community Centre hall, when speakers who tour nationally are frequently heard.

Enterprising

The performing arts of dance and drama featured regularly in the early years. Ballet for Two, including a tall, energetic young lady, may not significantly have advanced the cause of ballet in Newton Abbot! But Spanish Dancers were hugely successful, colourful and exciting and would captivate an audience still. Opera for All toured the South West, when opera was just something one read about in the Sunday papers. Now that Glyndebourne and Welsh National Operas provide grand touring companies on regular visits to Plymouth and elsewhere, it would be a brave Opera for All that would despatch two or three singers with homely fare.

Drama has featured on NADSA's menu. There was even a first from Alan Ayckbourne when his Scarborough Theatre Company turned up with Just Between Ourselves still wet off the press (the one with the dismantled car in the middle of the stage).

Notwithstanding the lively, enterprising and professional work on display, Newton Abbot audiences seem a little nervous of experimenting with drama. Poetry has had an airing too. Cecil Day Lewis and Jill Balcon provided a delightful programme many years ago and Ted Hughes, Laurie Lee and Charles Causeley have all been to Newton Abbot.

All these activities have been immensely interesting elements of NADSA's service to the town, but the mainstream music recitals continue since the very first concert on April 2, 1946, given by David Brynley (tenor) and Norman Notley (baritone and piano) at Wain Lane Girls' School. History may record what happened to Messrs Brynley and Notley, but it seems most of Newton Abbot will remain in ignorance of their fate.

Brighter stars have shone since then. A few examples are quite illuminating:
Jean Pougnet, Anthony Hopkins, Osian Ellis, Isobel Baillie, Leon Goosens, Jacqueline Du Pre, Nina Milkina, Janet Baker, Julian Bream, Trevor Pinnock, Peter Katin, John Heddle Nash, Jack Brymer, Tamas Vasary, Nicholas Daniels.

Legendary

These were, or still are, outstanding musicians, and they also demonstrate a central tenet adopted by the society. NADSA promotes professional events, and has made only rare forays into amateur activities in the belief that other societies cater for personal music-making. And this seems to be a recipe for success, since members, students, musicians and the general public attend concerts in substantial numbers and the present membership of the society, exceeding 250, is larger than it has been for some years.

One music feature now regrettably missing from the society's programmes is the Schools' Concerts. These regular events were organised enthusiastically by the late, legendary Miss Evans, head teacher at Decoy School, but, no doubt, even she would find it difficult to fight her way through the national curriculum and restore those joyful occasions. However, 20 schools in Teignbridge have co-operated splendidly with the society and with Teignbridge District Council to create a reminder of those days and, as a result, 250 youngsters from primary schools' music ensembles will attend the Community Centre on February 1 for a grand Schools' Concert. There will be some talk and a lot of music from the Allegri String Quartet, and Michael Collins, clarinet. An exciting occasion.

The future of the society looks interesting but inevitably, it will be linked with financial patronage, however that is defined.

A solid {gold?} thread running through its financial history is the support NADSA has received from the local authorities. The former urban and rural councils did not waver in their annual grants. They may have been small, but the cash was essential for survival.

Patronage

Teignbridge District Council and Newton Abbot Town Council have followed a similarly progressive course as part of their funding for the arts. Formerly such grants supplemented more substantial Arts Council support, but this has been withdrawn almost entirely. Businesses are now the aristocrats of arts patronage. Experience seems to indicate to Local Authorities, to businesses and to the general public that a heightened awareness of our musical and cultural traditions benefits everyone. Long may NADSA prosper.