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Strictly Cookham – Beginners’ Dance Course

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

Ticket £24 for four classes

including refreshments.

First (of four) 90 minute dance classes

starts at 2.30pm. See Activities for more information.  

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Strictly Cookham – Beginners’ Dance Course

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

Second dance class. See entry Friday, 24 April and See Activities for more information

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Exhibition: Knitters’ Allotment

Costa Coffee, Lower Road SL6 9HJ

Costa Coffee opening hours.

Free entry.

This exhibition features a large, knitted allotment made by Old Windsor Knit and Natter group and runs to 17 May.

See Exhibitions for more information.

The Sculpture Garden

Gardens of the Odney Club,

Odney Lane SL6 9SR

Open 10am to 5pm daily. Entry £2 adults, free for children under 16.

Sculpture Garden opens at Odney today and runs to 17 May. See Sculpture Garden for more information.

Open Air Painting Competition - Start

Odney Club, Odney Lane SL6 9SR

Go to the Odney Sculpture Garden today to have your canvas stamped – then start painting! See Activities for

more information.

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Exhibition: Matthew Burley

The Gallery at Elizabeth House,

Station Hill SL6 9BS

4-29 May. Weekdays 9am to 3pm, weekends during the Festival 10.30am to 4pm. Free entry.

See Exhibitions for more information.

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Open Air Painting Competition - Submissions

Sir Bernard Miller Centre,

Odney Club, Odney Lane SL6 9SR

Submit your artwork between 10am and 6pm today to enter the competition. 

See Activities for more information.

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Exhibition: A Cookham Remembrance

Training Room 3, Moor Hall SL6 9QH. Free entry.

10:30am to 4.30pm daily 8-10 May. Free entry.

This exhibition illustrates how Cookham and Cookham Dean would have looked to our brave young soldiers and their families, with photographs showing rural life and views of Cookham village, Rise and Dean. Also displayed are old maps of Cookham parish, historical information and interesting Cookham memorabilia.  Most of the photographs are from  private collections and many have never before been exhibited publicly. 

See Exhibitions for more information.

Exhibition: Cookham and the Great War

Cookham Station Ticket Office,

Station Hill SL6 9BP

Opening at Cookham Railway Station on May 8 it runs for the rest of Cookham Festival  to May 17.  Open during station hours from 6.30 am and stewarded 10 till 4 daily. Late opening Wednesday May 13  6 - 8 pm. Sunday 10-4 only.

'Cookham and the Great War 1914-1918' is a history of a village caught up in the greatest conflagration the World has ever seen.  A socially divided village, the toffs and the ordinary working people came together in adversity.  Grief was a common bond as they worked together to remember their war dead.   This exhibition looks at the remarkable stories of the men on the monuments and the villagers who built them.

FREE entrance.
See Exhibitions for more information.

Play Reading: A Way with Words

Elizabeth House, Station Hill SL6 9BS

1.30pm. Free entry.

The Elizabeth House Thespians deliver a rehearsed performance of “White Lies”, a one act play by local playwright Richard James. This group of village elders meets every Friday to read plays and poetry under the direction of Sue Roberts.

Talk: Women on the Home Front

Methodist Church, Lower Road SL6 9HJ

3pm. Followed by refreshments.

Ticket £6.

Edward Dixon looks at the contribution of women to the Great War. See Talks for more information.

Strictly Cookham – Beginners’ Dance Course

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

Third dance class. See entry Friday, 24 April and Activities for more information

Open Air Painting Competition - Prizegiving

Sir Bernard Miller Centre,

Odney Club, Odney Lane SL6 9SR

6pm. Free entry.

The judges have made their decision and now present prizes for first, second and third place in adult, junior and child categories. The submitted paintings are exhibited from today until Sunday, 10 May. See Activities for more information.

Jonah-Man Jazz

Furze Platt Senior School, Furze

Platt Rd, Maidenhead SL6 7NQ

6pm. Ticket £5 adult, £2.50 children under 16.

The four Cookham Primary Schools join forces to perform Michael Hurd’s ever popular Jonah-man Jazz. The pop cantata is packed full of memorable, catchy tunes with jazz, blues and rock ‘n’ roll rhythms, bringing the story of Jonah alive with great music and entertaining lyrics.

The People’s Shakespeare – The Merry Wives of Windsor

Sponsored by Harwood House

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

7.30pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £10.

Is your wife being unfaithful? Got a suspect in mind? Need a plan to trap them both? Mistress Ford is suspected by her husband of having an affair with Sir John Falstaff. Driven by jealousy, he resolves to have his revenge, but things don’t go according to plan… Join The People’s Shakespeare for Shakespeare’s sauciest comedy, presented by the people of Cookham!

See People's Shakespeare for more information

Maestros in the Making

Holy Trinity Church, Sutton Road SL6 9SP

7.30pm. Ticket £6.

This concert celebrates the exceptional musical talent of local young singers and instrumentalists, many of whom are planning a professional career in music.

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Festival Arts Hub

Parish Centre, Church Gate SL6 9SP

From 10am. Ticket £10 per session.

Work with professional artists to create your own work of art to take away in just 75 minutes! See Arts Hub for more information.

Storytelling: Tales for Children

Pizza Dreams Café, Station Hill SL6 9BT

10am to noon. Ticket £2.50 children under 16 and unaccompanied adults. Free entry for adults accompanying children. Drop in any time, stay as long as you wish to listen to local master storyteller David England’s stories for younger children.

The People’s Shakespeare – The Merry Wives of Windsor

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

2pm for matinée performance.

Licensed bar. Ticket £10.

See entry Friday, 8 May and People's Shakespeare for more information.

The Poppy Trail

3pm. Ticket £3

Guided walks recounting the stories of the soldiers who left Cookham to fight in The Great War. Click here for a .pdf of the Trail.

See Activities for more information. 

My Spirit  Sang All Day

St John the Baptist Church,

Church Road, Cookham Dean SL6 9PD

3pm. Followed by refreshments. Ticket £6.

The vibrant Rose Ensemble, with their distinctive personality and sound, take you on an uplifting musical journey through the ages. The varied programme of madrigals and folk songs, as well as relaxed romantic and jazzy numbers, includes works by Byrd, Vaughan-Williams and even Billy Joel.

Storytelling: Berkshire Stories and Tunes

Pizza Dreams Café, Station Hill SL6 9BT

3.30pm. Ticket £5 adults,

£2.50 children under 16.

David and Ed England entertain adults and older children in this one hour programme of Berkshire tales and tunes.

The People’s Shakespeare – The Merry Wives of Windsor

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

7.30pm for final performance.

Licensed bar. Ticket £10.

See entry Friday, 8 May and People's Shakespeare for more information.

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Festival Arts Hub

Parish Centre, Church Gate SL6 9SP

From 1pm

Work with professional artists to create your own work of art to take away in just 75 minutes!

Maximum six people per session. See Arts Hub for more information.

Festival Service

Methodist Church, Lower Road SL6 9HJ

10.30am. All welcome.

A Festival celebration of praise and worship at the newly refurbished Methodist church. The service includes readings and ever-popular uplifting hymns.

The Water is Wide

Holy Trinity Church, Sutton

Road SL6 9SP 3pm. Followed by refreshments. Ticket £6.

A song recital by Jonathan Wood (baritone), Vicki Manders-Wood (soprano), pictured above, and Sara Wood (piano). They celebrate songs of the British Isles and North America, from their shared folk-song heritage through to the diverging song forms of the early 20th Century, when British composers mined a rich seam of poetry and the Americans led the way in evolving opera into musical theatre.

Festival Evensong

Saint John the Baptist,

Church Road, Cookham Dean SL6 9PD

6.30pm. All welcome.

Enjoy a traditional choral evensong sung by the choir of St John the Baptist. Settings and anthems will include music by C. Tambling, J. Reading, O. Gibbons and S. S. Wesley.

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Wine and Canvas

7.30pm. Ticket £25.

With glass in one hand and a brush in the other, award-winning local artist Mandy McAllen shows you how to create a Klimt-inspired forest on canvas to take home. Have fun! Get messy! See Activities for more information.

Dick Barton, Special Agent - Part One

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

7.30pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £12 for one night £18 for both.

Upstage Theatre’s Kaos Kabaret, by special arrangement with the BBC bring their hilarious musical spoof of the original radio detective series to Cookham Festival.This drama plays over two nights with a traditional Dick Barton ‘Cliffhanger’ at the end of Part One. Enjoy each part separately – or better still, both, to discover how Dick Barton, Snowy and Jock escape from the jaws of disaster. Kaos Kabaret, whose cast includes Cookham resident Babs Christian, has performed to rave reviews at home and abroad.

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The Pied Pipers of Cookham

Sponsored by Dawkes Music Ltd

Methodist Church, Lower Road SL6 9HJ

10.45am. Followed by refreshments.

Ticket £6 adults.

Local mums and musicians Julia Bentley Dawkes and Victoria Dawkes present a varied and light hearted programme of classical music for two flutes and piano especially for babies and their grown-ups in an informal setting where babies can be changed or fed.

Talk: Stanley Spencer at the Seaside

Stanley Spencer Gallery, High Street SL6 9SJ 

1pm. Ticket £7.50.

Seaside historian Dr Kathryn Ferry discusses how British holidaymaking changed during Spencer’s lifetime. See

Talks for more information.

Talk: From Cummersdale to Cookham

John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre, Odney Lane SL6 9SR 

3.30pm. Refreshments from 3pm. Ticket £4.

Archivist Gavin Henderson discusses key moments in the creation and development of the textile design collection

and builds a picture of this unique archive. See Talks for more information.

Dick Barton, Special Agent - Part Two

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

7.30pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £12.

The adventure continues. See entry Monday, 11 May for more information.

Organ Recital

St John the Baptist Church,

Church Road, Cookham Dean SL6 9PD

8pm. Ticket £10.

Malcolm Stowell, organist and choirmaster of St Mary’s Church, Slough, plays a varied programme with works by Thalben Ball, Guilmant, Miserendino and Rheinberger. In 2004 Malcolm was presented with the Mayor’s Arts Award for his services to music in Slough.

Voices of the Great War

Cookham Dean Cricket Club,

Rickett’s Field, Whyteladyes Lane SL6 9LF

8pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £7.50.

A cast of well-known local performers led by Roger Deats presents an evening of poetry, prose and music from the First World War – some familiar, some not.

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Talk: A Quilter’s View of Spencer

John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre, Odney Lane SL6 9SR

3.30pm. Refreshments from 3pm. Ticket £5.

A unique event for all craft enthusiasts and those who enjoy the work of Stanley Spencer. See Talks for more information.

Singalong: Wouldn’t it be Loverly

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

8pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £10.

Sing-a-long to ‘My Fair Lady’ in this fun-packed evening led by Maidenhead Musical Comedy Society. Whether you’re a misogynistic and snobbish phonetics professor, London’s most famous flower girl, or spruced up for a day at the Ascot races, make sure you “Get to Pinder Hall on time”.

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Talk: A Quilter’s View of Spencer

John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre, Odney Lane SL6 9SR

3.30pm. Refreshments

from 3pm. Ticket £5.

See entry Wednesday, 13 May and Talks for more information.

The Poppy Trail

Various locations.

3pm. Ticket £3.

See entry Saturday, 9 May and Activities for more information

Peter Wilson’s Comedy Club

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

8pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £10.

Peter Wilson, a regular favourite on the Windsor stand-up comedy circuit, comperes tonight’s programme, which he says has something for everyone – whatever that means! The Comedy Club returns to Pinder Hall, for an evening of adult humour, audience participation and laughter.

From Odney Bridge to Flanders Field

Cookham Dean Village Hall, Church Road, Cookham Dean SL6 9PY

8pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £8.

The stories of the Great War years in the Cookhams, as recorded in the Maidenhead Advertiser and Parish Magazine, are written as a dramatised reading by Andy Draper and brought to life by local actors. Learn about the dispute over the building of the Odney Bridge, the views and concerns of those left on the home front and the men who left the Cookhams to fight for King and Country.

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Play Reading: A Way with Words

Elizabeth House, Station Hill SL6 9BS

1.30pm. Free entry.

See entry Friday, 8 May for more information.

Talk: From Cummersdale to Cookham

John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre, Odney Lane SL6 9SR 3.30pm.

Refreshments from 3pm. Ticket £4.

See entry Tuesday, 12 May and Talks for more information.

Strictly Cookham – Beginners’ Dance Course

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

Final dance class. See entry Friday, 24 April and Activities for more information.

Clint’s Jazz Band

Pinder Hall, Lower Road SL6 9EH

8pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £10.

One of London’s finest and most versatile professional jazz bands presents a concert of Big Band Jazz Classics. Their exciting performance is guaranteed to bring alive the world of jazz and keep your toes tapping all night long.

Drama: Regulation 18B – No Free Man

Sponsored by Faegre Baker Daniels LLP

Edinburgh Restaurant, Moor Hall SL6 9QH

7pm reception. 7.45pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £12.

This one-act play, written by Scott W. Wright and directed by Sylvia Wimpenny, has its world premiere at Cookham Festival. Based on an actual case from the early 1940s, this gripping story, with themes that resonate from the time of Magna Carta to today, explores the issue of liberty in a time of war. The panel discussion that follows is chaired by retired circuit judge and former president of the Law Society Charles Elly. Two old friends, now esteemed Law Lords serving on Britain’s highest court, find themselves at bitter odds. One, influenced by the urgencies of war, sides with the Government, asserting the strongest of state authority to arrest and detain citizens. The other, putting his reputation on the line, plans to issue a blistering dissent, determined to defend long-held British legal traditions. www.regulation18b.com

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Jazz Workshop

Sponsored by Dawkes Music Ltd

Holy Trinity Church, Sutton Road SL6 9SP

10am. Ticket £10.

The workshop gives GCSE and ‘A’ level students the chance to play jazz and perform with professional jazz musicians. See Activities for more information.

Let’s Rock The Moor!

Marsh Meadow, Cookham Moor SL6 9SB 

Noon. Licensed bars.

Gates open at 11am.

Let’s Rock The Moor! returns for its seventh year, with an action-packed day of live music at this boutique, family-friendly 80s festival. Tickets for this event are available from The Stationery Depot, 23 Station Parade, Cookham SL6 9BR. See Let's Rock the Moor for more information.

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Festival Eucharist

Holy Trinity Church, Sutton Road SL6 9SP

11am. All welcome.

With uplifting hymns for all to sing, the music is led by the Boys, Girls and Men of Holy Trinity Church Choir and readings and prayers led by members of the Girls’ Choir. The music includes: Mass in Three Parts (Byrd); I was glad (Parry) and anthems by Chilcott and Fauré.

Strictly Cookham Festival Tea Dance

Sir Bernard Miller Centre, Odney Club, Odney Lane SL6 9SR

2.30pm to 5pm. Ticket £10 (includes afternoon tea) for dancers and spectators alike. Dance the afternoon away to great music in the elegant surroundings of the Odney Club. Dancers of all levels will enjoy this event. Enjoy the magnificent tea provided by The Odney Club and watch a demonstration by a top prize-winning young couple. See Activities for more information.

Gala Concert – A Night at the Opera

Holy Trinity Church, Sutton Road SL6 9SP

7.30pm. Licensed bar. Ticket £12.

Join Cookham’s Cantorum Choir for an evening of inspirational music – a rousing finale to the Cookham Festival 2015 that will surely raise the roof of Holy Trinity Church! Prize winning soloists Rhian Lois (soprano) and Robyn Lyn Evans (tenor) from the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera join the choir to perform famous and less well-known opera choruses, solos and duets.

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