Our History

Our first chapter starts in the mid 1930’s the theatre was created as an activity for the staff and workforce at the ammunitions factory at Edingham. The Dalbeattie Drama Club came together to perform plays and musicals in the Church Hall, touring the local rural areas and entering the newly formed Stewartry Drama Festival. In 1951 they staged their first full length play, the organisation continued to stage two full length plays annually until 1960. It was fourteen years later when Theatre and the Arts were revived by the Dalbeattie and District Drama Club with the funds of £68 inherited from the earlier club.

However, in 1977 they acquired the lease on a wartime horsa hut in the grounds of the Primary School. In the spring of 1979, the idea of converting the building into a small theatre was proposed. A huge fundraising effort by the members resulted in a small theatre and later an extension to create a workroom and storage space. It took almost two years until the official opening of the theatre. There was no heating, no toilets and very little money – but loads of enthusiasm! During that year plans were accepted, and an independent electricity supply was installed. Theatre seats were located and moved from an old cinema. Finally, the building work, plumbing, rewiring, joinery jobs, painting and fitting of the seats were completed, and the Club decided to open with a play during October 1981. The week running up to the opening the scenery wasn’t painted, stage lighting was non-existent, and the toilets had no doors. But in the true tradition of theatre, ‘the show must go on’ and it did! A competition was run to find a name for the theatre and BIRCHVALE was the result, taken from Dalbeattie which means The Valley of the Birches.

Members have tried to keep the theatre updated having installed a new kitchen, fitted an induction loop for the hard of hearing and fitted a tiled floor to the foyer.

A Board of Trustees is elected each year at the Annual General Meeting, they run the theatre notifying the public of future productions and general information about the theatre.

There is an ever-expanding junior section which perform in many of the productions and are a source of many of the new ideas to improve the theatre experience. Although not our primary aim, we provide a stepping stone for the youngsters to make it to university or into further education.

In 2016 after a difficult few years the decision was made to continue as “The Birchvale Players” and with the reshuffle of committee members a breath of fresh air came over the theatre. 

A structural report on the current theatre at the former Dalbeattie Primary School in 2017 concluded that the HORSA Hut building was no longer fit for purpose and beyond economic repair. The results of the report proved unfavourable for the current building showing either an extensive and costly programme of repairs would be needed (including entirely rewiring and repairing the roof) or that we should aim to find another suitable home, in which to expand and increase our positive benefits to the local community.

In 2015, St Peter’s Primary Dalbeattie had been found to be surplus to requirements by the education department. Many schools in Dumfries and Galloway which become surplus suffer terrible fates, many coming under attack from the elements and vandalism. We aim to save the council the costs of the upkeep of the building and to put it to better use for the local community. At the same time the small school in the centre of Dalbeattie closed and the decision to 'dream big' was made and work began in earnest to plan a move.

In 2019, The Birchvale Players bought the St Peter’s Primary School property for £1 through a community asset transfer (CAT) from Dumfries and Galloway Council. Refurbishing costs came in at just under half a million pounds, but a huge team effort, put the funding package together, thanks to a long list of partners who had faith in the project. 

Learn more about the project by clicking here.

By Autumn 2021 the building was ready to open and the group were ready to 'live the dream'. Here's to the next chapter.