Free Churches Pageant

Pageant type

Notes

Information drawn from 'Survey of Historical Pageants' undertaken by Mick Wallis; with thanks to Chesterfield Library, Local Studies Department.

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Performances

Place: Bradbury Hall (Chesterfield) (Chesterfield) (Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England)

Year: 1951

Indoors/outdoors: Indoors

Number of performances: 1

Notes

1951

Name of pageant master and other named staff

  • Producer [Pageant Master]: Mellor, Mr H. 
  • Stage Manager: Thomas H. Jensen
  • Lighting Director: Mr F.J. Halstead
  • Singing directed by: Mariya Baker

Names of executive committee or equivalent

n/a

Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)

  • Percival, G.

Notes

The Rev. G. Percival wrote the pageant script.

Names of composers

n/a

Numbers of performers

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Financial information

n/a

Object of any funds raised

n/a

Linked occasion

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Audience information

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

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Associated events

1951 Festival of Britain.

Pageant outline

Key historical figures mentioned

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Musical production

The singing was directed by Miss Mariya Baker

Newspaper coverage of pageant

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Book of words

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Other primary published materials

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References in secondary literature

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Archival holdings connected to pageant

  • Chesterfield Library, Local Studies Department holds an (?undated) newspaper cutting with a photograph of the pageant cast.

Sources used in preparation of pageant

n/a

Summary

A great many historical pageants were staged up and down the country in association with the 1951 Festival of Britain. These took various forms, from large-scale civic events to smaller performances staged on village greens and in parish halls. Churches and religious groups were involved in some of these pageants, and this is one such example. Held at Bradbury Hall, Chesterfield, the two and a half hours-long Free Churches Pageant dealt with the history of British Protestant Nonconformity. Spanning six hundred years of history, the story told in the various episodes culminated with the establishment of the National Free Church Federal Council in 1939.

The event seems to have benefited from significant civic backing: the mayor and mayoress of the town—as well as members of the town council—were present as invited guests at the performance. 

  

Footnotes

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Free Churches Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1551/