William Gilbert School Ball at Derby Roundhouse

Photographs from the William Gilbert School 'Carriages and Cocktails' summer ball.

William Gilbert School PTA organised a special ‘Carriages and Cocktails’ summer ball at the Derby Roundhouse with over 200 guests enjoying a memorable evening of cocktails, food, dancing, and money raising, with funds going towards the William Gilbert Endowed Primary School in Duffield.

The cocktail staff – provided by the Event Kittens at Big on Taste – wowed the crowd with their daring bottle-throwing antics, and the delicious dinner was provided by the Roundhouse’s caterers, Baxter Storey. The event was themed around trains to reflect the historic use of the Roundhouse. Even the cocktails were appropriately named, the most popular being the Woo! Woo!, Full Steam Ahead and Off the Rails.

Helen Rydzyk, Conference and Events Manager at the Roundhouse, commented: ‘It was the first time a charity event here had picked up on the train history and it was great fun to see the guests carrying on the theme through the night.’

Almost a quarter of the guests were winners in a fantastic raffle. Then the auctioneer, Graham Penny of Graham Penny Estate Agents, steered the crowd through a rousing frenzy of fund-raising, auctioning off prizes such as a romantic drive in a vintage Delage to Chatsworth with champagne picnic, cricket bats signed by Freddie Flintoff and Kevin Petersen, and the opportunity to be a designer for a day at local knitwear manufacturer, John Smedley. An ‘art gallery’ of canvases produced by the school children was auctioned to raise funds, bringing the total amount raised on the night to over �9,500.

Photographs by Ashley Franklin