Sixty years ago this February, the popular Wymondham Players were busy rehearsing their first production, "Aunt Edwina", at the then-new Central Hall in Back Lane.

The Hall officially opened two months earlier on 1st December 1965 by Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax, replacing the Women's Institute Hall on Norwich Road, which had served the town as a social centre since 1927, with the Players staging 21 plays there since 1955 before its demolition in 1966. Previous to that and starting with "Young Wives' Tale" in 1953, they had performed five times at the old Vicarage Room, on the site of which now stands the Abbey Hall. A partnership between the Chamber of Trade and the Players had raised sufficient funds of £23,000 (in today's money £393k) for the Central Hall to be built. Bookings for the Hall came in thick and fast with the likes of dancing and keep-fit sessions, to bingo and, of course, the Players' performances.

So it was that "Aunt Edwina", a comedy, was presented in March 1966 - and the performers revelled in the unaccustomed space available on the Central Hall stage. John Fitches made a fine job of the title role in which a gentleman called Edward takes some tablets meant for horses, and they cause him to change sex. The family overcome the problem by changing Edward into Aunt Edwina - with hilarious results! The producer was Players' legend Denise Muir, who took on that job for ten years from 1963 to 1972 following the retirement of founding producer Robert Bagshaw, another Players' "great". And, of course, Denise had also trodden the boards in many productions, starting with the Players' first ever presentation, "Young Wives' Tale", in the Vicarage Room in November 1953.

Wymondham Players got off to a great start in their new home and have been providing first-class entertainment there for sixty years.