Hinchley Manor Operatic Society

Hinchley Manor Operatic Society was founded in 1949 by a small band of employees of the Milk Marketing Board in Thames Ditton, Surrey. They had been enthusiastic members of the Milk Marketing Board’s Theatrical Group, which was disbanded early in that year, a victim of that period of post war austerity.  Two of the founders of HMOS, Peter and Joyce Tatlow, maintained their enthusiasm for the theatre, ignored the austerity and following the demise of the Milk Marketing Board Group, went on to form Hinchley Manor Operatic Society (also known as HMOS) in the same year. After a period of rehearsal, the new Society performed Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Iolanthe’ as its inaugural production, at the Thames Ditton Village Hall, now known as The Vera Fletcher Hall, on March 14th 1950.

The society has gone from strength to strength over the last 70+ years and has produced and performed a diverse array of shows, from the traditional Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in the early days, to modern day musical theatre successes such as ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Chess’, ‘The Sound of Music’, 'Sister Act', 'Legally Blonde', 'The Wedding Singer' and 'Calendar Girls' at The Epsom Playhouse, Hampton Hill Theatre and The Adrian Mann Theatre. A sign of the times perhaps…but we no longer sing opera.

HMOS has a mixed membership age range and is based in Surbiton.

The full company rehearses on Monday and Friday evenings and performs two musicals a year.