Dracbassador Sal Chaffey reports on the April Orienteering and May Conference
Our themed urban in Derby commemorating the Dracula centenary was great fun, and the Museum of Making made us very welcome, with orienteers enjoying the exhibits and the Riverside Café. Results are here. The Start was on Cathedral Green, with the Bonnie Prince Charlie statue as the common last control.
It was a cloudless morning when we hung the controls (far too hot for my black cape), Dave doing 2/3 of them and me the 9 nearest the Museum. I noticed a wreath on the plinth of the BPC statue, thought “I hope nobody minds … it was a long time ago” and hung the control.
At 11:30 John (the Organiser) and I heard speeches and a pipe band … and no kite to be seen! I wandered over and asked what was happening. The Bonnie Prince Charlie Society were commemorating the 280th anniversary of Culloden (and our kite was resting discreetly below the horse). A minute’s silence was observed at noon, and John popped the kite back in situ before the start of the event.
Kudos to SYO’s Tony Udris who ran in full Dracula fancy dress, headcam footage of the Spiders course Tony also ran the longer Wolves course again with great sound effects!
The photo with Rex (for it is he) and Tony was shown at the Dracula Returns to Derby Conference in May, and the Appliqué Map I’d almost finished on event day is now on display with the miniature theatres on the top floor of Pickford’s House Museum.
After the event, I learnt that Doug had been into both the Grand and Hippodrome Theatres as a boy, with his grandfather who painted the sets. Sadly the Hippodrome is now in the process of demolition after two more fires likely caused by squatters in May, and House of Holes adult golf has now permanently closed in the building that was The Grand Theatre.
To mark the 101st anniversary of the premier, Conference attendees toasted Dracula’s first lines in the play, next door in the Babington Arms with John Eastwood, the great-grandson of the 1924 Dracula, Edmund Blake:
I have sorrow if I have given you the alarm – perhaps my footfall sounds not so heavy as that of your English ploughman.
The pub is well worth a visit as there are lots of photos of Derby of yesteryear and great-value food and beer.
It’s been a journey of discovery into Derby’s 1920s history for me, and I’m grateful to Professor Matthew Cheeseman and Dr Cath Feeny, both of Derby University, for outlining the social, political and artistic context of the 1924 premier. Dr Feely delivered the keynote speech of the Conference, and showed this lovely Pathé News Cities of Britain video from 1931. Derby features as No 4, yet wasn’t even recognised as a city until 1977! I also learnt that Rolls-Royce relocated to Derby from Manchester in 1907, as we offered cheaper rent. Many DVO members over the years have had, and still have, a Rolls-Royce connection.
I joined the Dracula Society, and am going on a Hamilton Deane walk in London next month. Hamilton Deane was a silent movie star in the 1910s. He adapted Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel for the stage in 1924 and played the part of Dr Van Helsing. His future wife Dora May Patrick (who played Mina Harker) insisted that the live mice used in the show should be given away to any children who bought along a suitable container! Also in the play as Renfield’s Warder was Jack Howarth, who went on to play Albert Tatlock in Coronation Street from the soap’s inception in 1960 until his death in 1984.
It’s only by coincidence in 2019 that Professor Cheeseman rediscovered that Dracula’s world premier took place in Derby on 15 May 1924. With other academics and Derby Museums, centenary celebrations were planned. I picked up a flyer about the project last summer at Derby Railway Station, joined the Reading Group in September and became a Dracbassador!
