CAC BECOMES HISTORY

from Perspectives Magazine, Spring 2021

THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE WRITER’S’ NETWORK

READ ON BEFORE PANICKING! JAMES HODSDON EXPLAINS

Aprevious note in Perspectives looked at what the Victoria County History – now tackling 20th century

Cheltenham – had discovered about the Kingsditch Lane trading estate. I thought you might like to see an early draft of what the VCH proposes to say about our own CAC, in the ‘Leisure and Culture’ section of the history:

“The Cheltenham Cultural Council was formed in 1944 at a meeting organised by the Rotary Club to address the 'right use' of leisure after the war. The Cheltenham Esperanto Society affiliated a few months later. By the autumn of 1946 nearly 50 societies were associated with the council, which was based at the School of Art in St Margaret's Road and also had individual members. Following a meeting arranged by the Council at the Rotunda, the Cheltenham and District Naturalists' Society was formed in 1948. The Council published a magazine and arranged a winter programme of talks in addition to supporting other cultural events, but by 1950 was in financial trouble. A move to change the name failed to find favour with the president, Alderman Clara Winterbotham, who a generation earlier had been Cheltenham’s first woman mayor. Disbanded in 1953, the Cultural Council’s place was taken by the Cheltenham Arts Council, formed in 1967 at the instance of the then Arts Sub-Committee of the Borough Council. By 1977 it was constituted as a charity, funded by the borough to support local groups. In 2020, its affiliates included five local history societies, 18 music and choral societies, 16 in the dramatic and visual arts, 6 language and literary societies, and several ‘Friends’ groups supporting museums and other local assets. Many national cultural organisations also had active branches in the town.” (Editor: CAC has 56 member organisations at time of publishing!)

You can see an edited version of this, and all the other drafts covering modern Cheltenham, at https://www. vchglosacademy.org/Cheltenham1945. html

Corrections, comments and suggestions are positively welcomed – we’d much rather get it right before it goes to print than hear about it after. Jan Broadway, the project coordinator, would love to hear from you.

My thanks to former chairman Terry Moore-Scott, for help in checking dates.

James Hodsdon