A Visit to Mill at Sonning – 17 July 2010
A Visit to Mill at Sonning – 17 July 2010
30 Members and there wives met at Sainsbury’s car park at 8.30 am for a day trip to Sonning Mill. Unfortunately David Wood and his sister Barbara were unable to come as she was in hospital having a knee replacement, we wish her well.
The plan was to go to Caversham Bridge at Reading and arrive at 11am for a boat trip but we arrived an hour early. Team leader did not panic! – But spotted a Crown Plaza hotel adjacent, we were all able to have a coffee etc. in very comfortable surroundings. A little better than the café that George our coach driver suggested!!
After coffee we then had 200 yard walk along the tow path to meet our Salter’s boat which took us along the Thames through Caversham Lock arriving at Sonning lock at 11.45 am. We then had a 10 minutes walk over Sonning Bridge to the Mill.
After 30 minutes in the bar having drinks the Buffet meal was served in the first floor restaurant at 12.30.At 2.15 pm we all took our seats to be entertained in the charming theatre with a performance of a comedy by Neil Simon titled
Herb Tucker has it easy. He lives in a Hollywood beach house, has a beautiful and adoring girlfriend, Steffy, and makes his living as a screenwriter … Well, it’s not quite like that. Herb is struggling with writer’s block, his beach house is a cheap and colourless bungalow, and he can’t bring himself to propose marriage.
Cue the arrival of the lively and determined Libby, a nineteen year old who speaks to her dead grandmother and dreams of becoming a movie star in any way she can! We soon discover that Libby is Herb’s daughter, whom he hasn’t seen since he walked out on her mother sixteen years previously. Libby, demanding that Herb helps her break into the movie business, moves in, and soon emotions run high as Herb is forced to deal with his past, his responsibilities as a father, and his fear of commitment. The legendary Neil Simon has blessed us with plays such as The Odd Couple and Barefoot in The Park – I Ought To Be In Pictures is another comedy-drama that will have you laughing out loud at its hilarious dialogue but also leave you moved with moments of truth and tenderness
The play finished at 4.30 pm and after a group photo by our ace photographer Cliff Douthwaite we had a very good drive back arriving at just before 6pm.
The view of everyone was that it was a super day out and that the bonus, it was a very nice sunny day with a pleasant temperature with great company.
John Mills
The Coach Trip to Reading
Crown Plaza Hotel taking Coffee
Salter’s boat which took us along the Thames through Caversham Lock arriving at Sonning lock
Buffet meal served in the first floor restaurant
The president Frank Rae giving thanks to John Mills our organiser
A brief history of the mill at Sonning on the river Thames
There has been a mill at Sonning for many centuries. In the Domesday Book of 1086 three mills at 'Sonninges and Berrochescire' are mentioned.
In the 1600s the rents for the mill went to the Royal Revenue.
During the Civil War when Cromwell had his headquarters in London and King Charles had his in Oxford, the troops met in the middle - Reading. It was Sonning which supplied the flour for the besieged garrison in the town. The site of the earliest Sonning mill could very well have been in a different place. Wooden buildings had a habit of burning down. This one dates back to the eighteenth century but the main parts of the present theatre building are from around 1890. It was owned then by the Witherington family who added the top two storeys and the larger waterwheels for more power to drive the machinery. Around 1898 they put in a steam engine to supplement the water power.
The Phillimore family took over the mill in 1913 but they still traded under the name of C.H. Witherington and Sons Ltd. They remodelled the inside of the mill the following year.
Up until 1950 the mill had its own fleet of barges which brought wheat from London right up to its door. In 1962, when the business was taken over by Associated British Foods Ltd., they remodelled yet again and introduced electric engines although the main source of power was still produced by the wheels.
When the mill closed in 1969, it was one of the last flour mills on the Thames driven by wheels. The new port mill at Tilbury had opened and Sonning, being much smaller could not compete economically. Also, one of Sonning's major customers, Huntley and Palmers, stopped making biscuits in Reading.
The mill remained empty until 1977. It was then that Tim and Eileen Richards, who had a great love of theatre, found the derelict building and decided to convert it into The Mill as it is today. Tim invited his brother Frank to join them and the transformation took four years to complete. THE MILL AT SONNING DINNER THEATRE opened on July 22nd 1982.
Sadly Frank Richards died in 1994 and Tim Richards died in 2002. Eileen Richards and her children are now the owners of The Mill which continues to go from strength to strength thanks to its ever loyal staff and audience, having produced an abundance of plays and musicals. In 1984 The Mill At Sonning was given a conservation award by The Times newspaper and The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors for the design, restoration and conversion of the derelict mill into a dinner theatre, and recently was nominated Most Welcoming Theatre by the Theatre Managers Association.
