#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: HAMMER FILMS GARDEN PARTY

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#‎toocooltuesday‬ : On May 29th 2000.... just a few days after Peter Cushing's B'day... Bray Studios, the home of Hammer films was once again buzzing with the actors, directors and technicians who had once worked there and helped produced some of the finest films in the Hammer heydays. Only on this day, there was no film or work. Hammer had long moved on...

All the guests had gathered under the watchful eye and co-ordination of documentary maker, DONALD FEARNEY. This was the second of his BRAY Studios Garden Parties..Don went on to do one more even bigger event there...held on the lawn of Down Place, the very scene of the tussle with Peter and Christopher Lee in 'The Mummy' of 1959. The event was a hot ticket...only 200 places... if you were lucky to get one. It was also the 50th anniversary of Hammer films with all proceeds going to ‘The Ralph Bates’ Pancreatic Cancer Fund’. Over a staggering 80 Hammer guests attended, and the fans were kept busy collecting getting mostly free autographs and having snaps taken with the cream of the industry. Here is the roll call of just some of the guest who attended on the day: Veronica Carlson, Ingrid Pitt ,Freddie Francis, Julie Ege, Yvonne Monlaur, Andrée Melly, Michael Ripper, Suzanna Leigh, Caroline Munro, Oscar Quitak, Martine Beswick, James Bernard, Ray Harryhausen, Ian Scoones, John Forbes-Robertson, Francis Matthews, Aida Young (Hammer producer), Eddie Powell (Christopher Lee’s stunt double), Freddie Francis, Renee Glynne (Continuity Manager), Ralph Bates’ widow Virginia Wetherell (DEMONS OF THE MIND), Edward De Souza (KISS OF THE VAMPIRE), Dame Thora Hird (THE QUARTERMASS XPERIMENT) and many many others.

It was a day of glorious sunshine, though ironically, thunder and lightning finally struck at the end of the day. Very spooky, but how very appropriate and very cool! ! The perfect end for a perfect day at Hammer Studios. Sample the atmosphere of the day in this tv news report broadcast of the event. Were you there?





Footnote: This was sixteen years ago, and at that time the shaky future of Bray still being used as a production facility was as ever in doubt, but it had been just thrown a life line, which kept the studio open for a further fourteen years. Sadly, the studio lots have now been torn down, the studio is no more and in recent times the mansion house and grounds have been purchased by a private developer. The development of several apartments is on going, Down Place is also now in private ownership.

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FOUR GREAT SHOTS FROM HAMMER CUSHING FRANKENSTEINS

Peter Cushing out on location at Black Park during the shooting of 'FRANKENSTEN CREATED WOMAN' for Hammer films in (1967)

Francis Matthews asses the damage to Peter Cushing's Baron Frankenstein in Hammer films, 'THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN' (1958)

Three great photographs taken from up in the lighting, Bray studio's ceilings were too low to hold a gantry, as the sets were built in the rooms of the mansion house of Down Place.

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BRAY STUDIOS HOME OF HAMMER FILMS AWAITS GO AHEAD ON NEW APPLICATION

NEWS: Farmglade wants to restore and partially demolish Down Place House, and add a two-storey extension, to create 10 new homes, and demolish surrounding buildings to build 15 houses.

The last remaining tenants at Bray Studios – where the iconic Hammer Horror films were made – left in 2014. In its planning statement, the applicant says Down Place House’s 18th century west entrance will be reinstated, as will the original entrance lobby. A large studio building to the south of the building’s east wing will be demolished, as will the former stables to the west. The application says: “This area is considered to have limited historic or architectural value and it detracts from the appearance of the main historic building.”

It would be replaced with a new extension ‘designed to enhance the appearance of the main listed building’. The studios to the south of Down Place House would be torn down and replaced with 11 detached houses and a terrace of four homes. Farmglade is building 44 homes in nearby Water Oakley, a project which was approved by councilors in April 2014. The planning application statement adds: “The application seeks to rationalize the development of this site with adjacent Water Oakley site to the west, with which it shares a long, common boundary.

“The new housing proposed in this application has houses grouped informally around a ‘village green’ to the southern end nearest the entrance, and a more formal green at the entrance area to Down Place House.”

The Royal Borough expects to make a decision by Thursday, October 8.
Source: Maidenhead Advertiser