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James Shatford - eccentric actor/manager

James Shatford was the talented but quite eccentric actor/manager of Blandford’s Theatre.

He was a clearly recognisable character around the town. Typically, he might be wearing an outfit of a spangled waistcoat, peach coloured silk stockings, a hat with gold tassels and red slip on slippers.

One of his foibles was an utter distaste for umbrellas. He preferred to get wet to the skin rather than hoist an umbrella above his head. Likewise, he would wear ill-matching clothes and shirts with huge frills and deep ruffles on his hands. 

Usually, he would take breakfast around midday. While in a barber’s chair, he might impatiently write some half a dozen letters and then stand up and quit the chair half-shaven with his chin bleeding. He might then go shopping to buy a pie and wine for his evening dinner. Despite being an exceedingly slim young man with his taste for the good things in life he soon acquired a bulky appearance as he grew older. Theatre tickets could be bought from him in the Ship Inn at 36 Salisbury Street (1753-1807) where he frequently stayed while in Blandford.

Born in 1764, James Shatford was the son of a Gloucestershire doctor and was first noticed on a theatrical bill when he appeared as a 20 year old at the Haymarket Theatre, London.  In 1790, he took over the management of a Salisbury group of players and then opened a theatre in Blandford in White Cliff Mill Street. Located near the Kings Arms, it was called the New Theatre. Apart from Salisbury and Blandford, Shatford took his players to Lymington, Dorchester and Shaftesbury. The Blandford Theatre was described as an ‘elegant little theatre.’

The popularity of Shatford’s productions was shown when one night one of his performances of the comedy Dorsetshire Rambles by Irish dramatist, John O’Keefe clashed with both the first day of the Blandford Horse Races and a Grand Ball at the Crown Hotel. The Salisbury and Winchester Journal observed that the comedy proved so popular that not everyone could squeeze into Blandford Theatre.

James Shatford died in 1809 when in Newport on the Isle of Wight. In his will he asked his wife, Sarah ‘to dispose of the theatrical equipment at all due speed.’ Despite this, Mrs Shatford continued to run the business until 1832 when she died. As a result the Blandford theatre was then put up for sale.

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