About us
Lympstone Entertainments was founded in 2006 by Harland Walshaw and John Welton who believed that there was a thirst for good live entertainment in Lympstone, our East Devon village on the banks of the Exe with its tradition of fishing and farming. They felt that the audiences who flock to the popular amateur productions of the Lympstone Players would also welcome a programme of professional events in the village.
For thirteen years John Welton was Professor and Head of the School of Education at Oxford Brookes University. John has returned to Lympstone after working in education development in many parts of the world. He comes from a musical family. His father, Leonard Welton, ran the London Music Shop in Exmouth and was one of the founders of the Exmouth Music Club which for many years ran successful series of concerts by professional musicians. John plays the clarinet and bass clarinet and has directed music for a number of productions for the Lympstone Players.
Harland Walshaw was Director of the Beaford Centre in North Devon, the largest rural arts centre in Europe, where he worked for more than 10 years. He was responsible for a programme of concerts, plays, community arts events, exhibitions, adult classes and residential courses throughout the area, and was involved in founding the Orchard Theatre Company and The Plough Arts Centre. As Director of The Fylde Arts Association in Lancashire he founded Aspect Young People’s Theatre Company, and in London ran The Printmakers’ Council of Great Britain. For the past 15 years he has been an architectural photographer, and now has more than 30 books to his name, including Devon’s Churches: A Celebration. Harland is currently taking the photographs for a book on the buildings of West Yorkshire. This is the second of a series to complete the Shell Guides, which were edited by John Betjeman & John Piper. East Yorkshire, Cumbria, Somerset and Hampshire will follow.
Before long the two founders were joined by John Eaton-Terry, a Lympstone resident since the 1970s. His early years as press officer first to the City of London’s Mermaid Theatre and later the Royal Court Theatre, as well as marketing experience in various parts of the world, have been deployed on behalf of several of this busy village’s cultural groups. He has also acted in and directed plays in Lympstone and beyond, most recently adapting and directing a Chekhov comedy for a café theatre presentation under the title Off the Shelf or the Sound of Mujiks!
The final member to join the team is Brian Mather, who is proud to be called a “sand grown'n” from Morecambe. He taught first in Trafford, Manchester and then for over 30 years in Hertfordshire. He was a primary school headteacher for 24 years before retiring to Lympstone. A founder committee member of the Lympstone Film Society Brian is its technical wizard and now looks after the money for Lympstone Entertainments, in addition to heavy responsibilities on the PCC.
