Tea dances back at town hall
Tea dances and weddings are to make a triumphant return to the new-look Bilston Town Hall, it was revealed today. Tea dances and weddings are to make a triumphant return to the new-look Bilston Town Hall, it was revealed today. The refurbished ballroom will hold events and functions all year long for the community when it reopens fully in April. Today it was also announced an historic organ is being reconditioned and transported to the venue where it will provide entertainment in the ballroom for years to come. Bilston town centre manager Mark Connell said the town hall would soon be resembling the thriving hub of activity of old. He said: "We've spoken to people in Bilston and they've told us that they want the town hall's ballroom to be what it used to be like when it was at the heart of the town. "We intend to hold tea dances, weddings and younger people have suggested holding concerts there. "We have fitted a lift now so that will make it accessible to more people." Read the full story in the Express & Star.
The refurbished ballroom will hold events and functions all year long for the community when it reopens fully in April.
Today it was also announced an historic organ is being reconditioned and transported to the venue where it will provide entertainment in the ballroom for years to come. Bilston town centre manager Mark Connell said the town hall would soon be resembling the thriving hub of activity of old.
He said: "We've spoken to people in Bilston and they've told us that they want the town hall's ballroom to be what it used to be like when it was at the heart of the town.
"We intend to hold tea dances, weddings and younger people have suggested holding concerts there.
"We have fitted a lift now so that will make it accessible to more people."
Mr Connell has enlisted the help of city organist Steve Tovey to help bring the instrument to the town hall.
It is a Compton organ and was first installed in the Lyric Cinema, Wellingborough, in 1936. It was moved to a neighbouring school in 1967 where it has remained ever since.
Mr Tovey and a group of 10 helpers have been travelling between the school and Bilston, bringing back the organ in parts.
He said it had been the dream of an unnamed millionaire to see an organ reinstated in the town hall.
Historians have praised the idea.
Frank Sharman, of the Wolverhampton History and Heritage Society, said: "This is great news for the town hall and for Bilston.
"The organ will be installed in the ballroom of the first floor and there it will be used for concerts, regular dances, events and functions and all the usual uses of such an instrument.
"Although it will not rise up through a hole in the floor in the cinema tradition, it will be on the stage and so arranged that the stage can be cleared for events."
