Safety notes led to comedown for choir
They don't know it, but these young Shrewsbury choristers are taking their lives in their hands.
At some stage after this picture was taken at Shrewsbury Music Hall they were banned from going on the balcony in case it collapsed under their collective weight.
The photo of Priory Boys School Choir was taken by veteran Shrewsbury photographer Bernard Cross, who lives these days in Thixendale, Yorkshire, and who estimated the date as the late 1970s or early 1980s.
But it turns out that it was taken quite a bit earlier.
Roy Whittall, of Vyrnwy Road, Oswestry, tells us: "Your picture of the Priory Boys School Choir evoked a lot of memories for me. I was in the choir for the whole of my time there, from 1956 to 1961, singing as a treble, alto and bass.
"We loved to sing in the Music Hall with a choir that was 250 strong. The acoustics were marvellous and two pieces that I remember so well were ‘A Christmas Oratorio’ and ‘A Child of our Time’. With the latter, we were privileged to have the composer Sir Michael Tippett sitting in the opposite balcony and he was so impressed with the performance that he agreed to write a piece for the choir to perform.
"Vincent Priestly was a fiery but excellent conductor. He was also very well-connected and often the Shrewsbury Orchestral Society was augmented by several members of The Halle Orchestra and famous national soloists would also perform.
"I think, on this occasion, I was an alto in my second year and so I think the year is 1957 or 1958. Unfortunately the choir was forbidden to use the Music Hall because the balcony was considered by the local authority to be unsafe for such a large number of boys with well over 100 boys there!
"I will be interested to see if my account is corroborated by others."
Roy cannot make out enough detail on the picture to identify which one of the choristers is himself, and says that the ruling banning them from using the balcony was made before he left in 1961.
