WHEN George Green walks through town, people still ask him "when is your next music hall show?"

Starting in the late 1970s, Wantage's newly-formed Cancer Research UK committee organised a series of vaudeville variety shows featuring local talents – musicians, actors, acrobats and more.

It took two years to organise each one, and the shows would fill the Victoria Cross arcade, and latterly Wantage Civic Hall, every other year and run for days on end.

They consistently sold out and raised thousands of pounds for the charity.

Last month the remaining members of the committee got together to celebrate their 50th anniversary and share some memories from the early days.

Mr Green, best-known in Wantage as the founder of Green & Co estate agents (his sons Matthew and Tim now run it), said: "There was one guy who came from Blewbury, Ted Fry, who rode a penny farthing bicycle across the stage and sang and danced.

"We had a chorus of waiters and waitresses – there were 20 of them just doing that.

"Rosemary Lang organised the music and put together a little band with her husband Phil on the double bass.

"We were going back to the Edwardian period, so it was songs like Oh Mr Porter and My Old Man Said Follow The Van."

Mrs Lang was the founder of the Wantage Cancer Research UK committee.

After moving to the town in 1962 with husband Philip, a dentist, she set her sights on the philanthropic project.

She said: "The first show we did, we booked the hall for two night but it was a runaway success, we couldn't believe it.

"Everyone said 'why didn't you do more nights?', so next time we made it longer.

"It was always great fun, especially finding people who turned out to be very talented."

Mrs Lang, who lives in Littleworth Hill, Wantage, added: "I think a lot of people in Wantage give a lot to the town and join in with all sorts of things."

Mr Green, 82, who lives with his wife Sonia in Letcombe Regis, said: "In our time we did raise quite a lot of money and we thought it was about time we noted that achievement but also thank everyone in Wantage who supported us.

"Without them we wouldn't have raised a penny."

After committee members held their last music hall they went on to stage countless other fundraisers – sponsored walks, house-to-house collections and selling Christmas cards at the Vale and Downland Museum – and raised a total of £380,000 over five decades.

Mr Green said: "The music halls were always the best money-spinners and the best fun."