Westfield Folkhouse Memories
It is a pleasure to see the other article regarding the Folk House but I was surprised there is no mention of Miss Rachel Manners or Doris Holloway who ran and maintained a thriving Youth Club with a Junior and Senior section. For many many years before the Notts. C C took over they provided many, various activities — Folk Dancing, The Pantomimes and a Play (usually directed by Mr Len Tooke every Year). There were two Football Teams: a senior side in the North Notts. Premier League and an Under 16 team in a Mansfield and District. Many members and local actors carried on in the Masque players and pantomimes from the Fifties onwards and were involved in Mansfield Operatic Society at The Grand Cinema each year. Jack Tyler, Leslie Orton, Jose Cooke, Len Parker, Ray Wallace and Arthur Froggatt to name only a few. The pantomime casts at the Folkhouse in the early days were mainly members of the Youth Club and they played to full houses. The Folk Dancers always entered competitions in the Notts. area and also in the Summer at the Club. Rachel Manners and her team of helpers deserve to have their devotion fully recognised by all and sundry
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Hi Malcolm.
You are quite correct, it was called Innisdoon.
Dear Malcolm
I have been reading this with my mum, Edith Mary nee McPhee. She and her sister Janet spent their teenage years living in the Folk House where their mother, Sarah McPhee was Housekeeper. She has fond memories of Miss Manners. Any more information you have on this would be gratefully received.
I have been researching the Quakers in Mansfield, but on this site, have only included the early history of George Fox and the Quakers. The family of Rachel Manners,who were all Quakers I have described in a booklet I have produced, available to anyone interested. With the approval of Mansfield Museum and Mansfield Youth Service, I have obtained a copy of Buxtons watercolour and together with a short account of Rachel is framed and will be hung in the restored Folkhouse. Ralph Holt
Regarding the The picture—— I seem to remember the main entrance was on Westfield Lane though I may be Wrong but The Gates and the Iron fencing would have been requisitioned for The War Effort. Rachel manners lived I believe on Chesterfield Road at the bottom of Crow Hill.
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