Hooton Roberts
Coordinates: 53°28′05″N 1°16′19″W / 53.468°N 1.272°W Hooton Roberts is an affluent village and civil parish situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England.
The village was home to the Gatty family of Ecclesfield. Nicholas Comyn Gatty, son of the Rev. Reginald Gatty, was born in Bradfield, Sheffield, on 13 September 1874. He was educated at Downing College, Cambridge and at the Royal College of Music which is where he met and became a lifelong friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams, who from the 1900s spent many a summer vacation with the Gatty's at Hooton Roberts. In September 1902, Williams composed the song Linden Lea sitting in the rectory gardens, where the walls were covered with ivy, and on the lawn were croquet hoops. Williams often played croquet at Hooton Roberts.
In 1897, the Hooton Roberts Musical Society was formed by the Gatty's. Nicholas played the harpsichord and the violin. His brothers Ivor and René were also involved with the Society. His first opera Greysteel, with text by René was performed in Sheffield on 1 March 1906 by the Moody-Manners touring company and at the Crystal Palace on 24 May, Lucy Broadwood, acting as guarantor. This was followed by the opera Duke or Devil, premiered in Manchester on 16 December 1909, again by the Moody-Manners company. This opera proved more successful, as did his next opera Prince Ferelon, which won a Carnegie Award. Gatty's other operatic works were: The Tempest, King Alfred and the Cakes, both with text by René Gatty. His orchestral works included a Concert Allegro for piano and orchestra premiered at the Proms in 1901 and a set of Variations on Old King Cole.
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