Between the wars there was a very active drama group in Ditchling. There is a woodcut design by Eric Gill for the Ditchling Dramatic Club dated 1923. This was very much inspired by Amy Sawyer who was an artist of some renown who lived in Ditchling and wrote rather whimsical plays about Sussex village types. These plays were published in 1934 in a book Sussex Village Plays. By this time the players had become the Ditchling Village Players and used to travel all over Sussex giving performances in village halls. There is a record in the Sussex County Herald dated April 1925 of the Ditchling Village Players involved in a charity concert in the Winter Garden at Eastbourne. The second World War put an end to this but on the 9th January 1945 a meeting was held at the Old Meeting House to revive the Players. It was felt that the name Village Players was too restricting and the Ditchling Players was born.

Of the first committee appointed at that meeting only three members are still alive, among them being Leon Sinden, brother of Sir Donald and Joy. Joy Sinden was a mime artist well-known for her mimes throughout the South and even reached the fringe of the Edinburgh Festival. She acted and produced for the Players right up to her death in 1993.

During the 1950s there was a very competitive drama festival held each year in Sussex. Something like thirty-six societies competed for the privilege of performing at the finals on the stage at Glyndebourne. In 1956 the Players were the proud winners with two Christopher Fry plays, A Phoenix Too Frequent and The Boy with the Cart.

The Players also had considerable input into the Pageant of Ditchling which was held every ten years from 1950 until 1981 after when the site at Lodge Hill was no longer available.

Grace Denman was the artistic inspiration behind the colour co-ordination and costume design of this. As she was in many of our productions including Alice Through the Looking Glass. This was a production in 1969 adapted by our Past President Pam Grieve with music written by John Ferdinando and Peter Howells, who later became a leading light of the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop. A record was made of this at the time and now is a collector’s piece worth £500 or more! It was a success no less for having Martha Kearney, the BBC's former Political correspondent, as Alice.

In 1972 Ditchling village hall was rebuilt and the Players were able to co-operate with the architect with the result that we now have one of the best amateur stages in the district. The hall has been refurbished again even more recently to incorporate a disabled loo and babies' changing room.