page_title: Blewbury
section_title: Performing arts
hierarchical_section_title: Blewbury / Performing arts
caption_attribution_description: English: Great Tree Farm Barn, London Road, Blewbury, Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire) after being re-thatched
context_page_description: Blewbury is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs section of the North Wessex Downs about 4 miles south of Didcot, 14 miles south of Oxford and 50 miles west of London. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,581.
  A number of springs rise at the foot of the escarpment of the downs. Some springs feed a small lake called the Watercress Beds, where watercress used to be grown. From here and elsewhere tributaries feed the Mill Brook which carries the water to the Thames at Wallingford. The A417 road runs along below the escarpment above the springs and through the south of the village. The Blewbury citizens are often called Blewbarians.
context_section_description: Every two years or so the village puts on a festival, with various shows and dances, exhibitions in many of the old houses, and a walk along the path of the Millbrook as it threads its way through many private gardens.
  The village has a theatrical tradition. There is an open air theatre in the grounds of Orchard Dene house with capacity for an audience of 250, where productions are performed each summer. These involve amateur actors and back stage workers under professional direction. There are also theatrical events put on in the Village Hall.
  About every five years since 1978, the village has commissioned a new opera for amateur performance. This has been performed in St Michael's church. The earlier operas attracted media attention, including a one-hour television film about The Snow Queen in 1982.
  More recent productions have had less attention. The productions were not widely seen, since once St Michael's has been adapted for the large cast and orchestra, there is room for only about 120 in the audience each night. In April 2009 there was a new production of Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde. In 2012 or so it was planned to revive the first of Blewbury's commissioned operas Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by the composer Richard Blackford, who now lives in the village.
caption: Great Tree Farm Barn, a weatherboarded and thatched 17th-century barn on London Road
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