Laurel & Hardy
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New Crown Inn is the venue for the monthly meetings of the Sheffield branch of the Sons of the Desert (the International Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society). Each branch (or Tents as they are better known) is named after a Laurel and Hardy film - officially the Sheffield branch is known as the Brats Tent of Sheffield.
Meetings are held on the second Monday of every month at the New Crown commencing at 7:30pm. There's a modest membership fee of £1 per meeting or Annual membership packages (collected in January) for both families and individuals, which work out significantly cheaper, and Senior Citizens receive free membership. Meetings are very informal and consist mainly of films viewed on a large screen, with each meeting hosting a raffle (with Laurel and Hardy associated prizes) and an occasional quiz. About 40 members attend per meeting, from all across South Yorkshire although approx 25% at each meeting are from Handsworth!
Despite being called Sons of the Desert, this does not mean that there is an all exclusive male membership! A number of female members also enjoy an evening in the company of Stan & Ollie. It’s simply called the SOTD after the film of the same name! New members are always welcome and there is no age limit (our oldest member is an octoganarean and our youngest is 5), please come along and join in with the fun!
Octember 2008 sees the Brats Tent entering its 20th year with plenty of celebratory events planned for the 12 months thereafter. These include a curry night at Handsworth’s Lajawab Restaurant, a world premiere performance of the play ‘The Fiddle and the Bow’, written and performed by Sheffield’s own Andrew Shephard at the New Crown Inn. Also planned is a cinema filmshow, a brewery visit, and in April 2009 there will be a civic unveiling of a statue of Laurel and Hardy in Stan’s home town of Ulverston in Cumbria, to which a coach trip will be organised.
For other events, etc, please see the Newsletters page which contains recent Brats Tent of Sheffield newsletters that you can view or download to your PC. They are in PDF format - so you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these.
If you would like any further information you can contact John Burton (Grand Sheik of the Sheffield branch) on 0114 254 8151 or send an e-mail to John at ollie_varadi@yahoo.co.uk. For more information about Laurel and Hardy acivities worldwide, please see the Bowler Dessert site which includes links to many other L&H sites.
Last modified 08-09-2008 13:46
Brats' Nowonder Meeting 10 November '08
