Arts Centre in the Woods

Hands up if you know where Arlington Arts Centre is? It always surprises me that no matter how long you have lived in a place there is always somewhere new to discover. Last night, I went to see guitarist extrordinaire Preston Reed perform just a half an hour away from Grove.

Arlington Arts Centre is opposite Snelsmore Common Country Park on the B4494 over the downs from Wantage - just outside Newbury. It is actually part of the campus of Mary Hare School, which does wonderful work with deaf children and which I have passed numerous times. The arts centre has everything you would expect of a theatre -an auditorium with a capacity for 250 people, a box office and a bar. I was amazed to find such a facility in the woodlands just outside Newbury.

Of course, Wantage and Grove quite rightly has its own WAGArts (Wantage and Grove Arts Guild), which provides a focus for getting better facilities for local arts groups. With the expanding population of both Wantage and Grove, this is an ambition well worth supporting... but pay a visit to Arlington to see how it is done in the woods.