Work can now begin on a £1m two-part project to celebrate William Shakespeare’s work in Titchfield.
Titchfield Festival Theatre (TFT) has gained planning permission to renovate The Great Barn in Mill Lane to host Shakespeare’s plays.
Clik here to view.
Theatre staff to turn The Great Barn into a Shakespeare heritage centre
Staff at the theatre group received council-backing to revamp the 120 ft by 30 ft barn in the grounds of Titchfield Abbey into a stage and rehearsal area with a centre to study the playwright – who was believed to have lived and written poems in the village.
The barn would be open to the public all year round. The Shakespeare Festival will be staged from May to October, while the rest of the year it will be used as an educational facility with Shakespeare exhibitions.It will also be available to be hired by other acting clubs and they have already had interest from groups in Poland and the USA.
Performers hope to present their first spoof-play ‘Juliet and her Romeo’ at the site on July 18.
TFT’s artistic director Kevin Fraser told the Fareham Council planning committee that nationally the Shakespeare tourism industry is worth £4bn per year and by approving their project would benefit the economy for Titchfield and the borough.
Titchfield ward Councillor Connie Hockley said: “I agree it is a magnificent building and I welcome it being used. It needs to be loved and needs to be looked after. I 100 per cent support this application. I just don’t want to see in future it become too commercialised.”
Councillor Arthur Mandry, deputy chair of the planning committee, said it could be an “enormous” expense for the theatre company to maintain the Grade I listed building to the high standard expected and proposed a clause to be included in the approval for a “certain level” of maintenance.
Clik here to view.
The 200 seat and stage at Titchfield Festival Theatre is set for a makeover
With planning permission approved, Mr Fraser said staff would be delighted to get to work on the project immediately.
He said: “We’re pleased to that the council has had the foresight to go with the plan and I hope that we will get continued backing from them.
“It means we can really get going now and start accessing the various loans and grant money to improve and enhance the whole area.
“It gives us the opportunity to work in an atmospheric building rather than a factory, shall we say, which is still a nice theatre space. But to be somewhere where Shakespeare may have sat and scribbled a few plays is always nice.
“There is a good reason we should be doing tourism. Titchfield and Fareham have got a real potential.”
Mr Fraser added that two or three jobs would be created from the re-development, including a 24-hour security guard for the premises.
The plans coincide with TFT’s permission that has already been granted to renovate the current 200-seat theatre site in St Margaret’s Lane. They will extend the staging area, create a mezzanine seating platform, improve the heating facilities, as well as build walls for two new larger rehearsal areas.
