Pageant of Boston

Pageant type

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Performances

Place: Shodfriar’s Lane Football Ground (Boston) (Boston, Lincolnshire, England)

Year: 1951

Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors

Number of performances: 2

Notes

2 June 1951 at 3.30 and 7.30pm

Name of pageant master and other named staff

  • Producer [Pageant Master]: Ede, Christopher
  • Assistant Producer: Geden, John
  • Historical Notes By: Canon A.M. Cook; Miss D. Calthorp; Mr W.E. Greenwood; Mr H.A.H. Walter
  • Stage Managers: Messrs. W.J.R. Medlock and Ronald Gibson
  • Director of Music: Flt.-Lt. W.J. Bangay, MBE
  • Chorus Masters: Mr C.R. Theobald and Mrs J.M. Lunn
  • Costume Adviser: Mrs E. Goshawk
  • Costume Designers: Mrs G.M. Brough; Mrs Joan Clark
  • Banner Designer: Mrs G.M. Brough
  • Banners Painted by: Mrs G.M. Brough; Mr D. Hanson; Mrs and Mrs H.V. Hedger; Mr W. Smith; Miss Francis; Mr J.N. Cartwright
  • Wardrobe Mistresses: Mesdames Joan Clark, M. Tait, M. Gould, A. Hague, H. Adams and M. Hunt
  • Programme Cover Designer: Mrs Joan Clark
  • Master of Horses: Mr J. Bland
  • Mounted Section Organised by: Mrs Doreen Medlock
  • Stage Designed By: Christoper Ede
  • Stage Erected By: Mr C.T. Pickering
  • Stewards: Members of the Boston United Football Supporters’ Club by arrangement with Mr W. Levesley
  • Wigs: ‘Bert’
  • Railway Engine: Designed by Mr L.H. Brown and built by Mr J. Bamford
  • Firearms by: Bapty

Names of executive committee or equivalent

Executive Committee:

  • Chairman: D.B. Medlock
  • Treasurer: Miss F. Elsey
  • Organising Secretary: Mrs E. Allen
  • Father C. O’Brien
  • Miss N. Berry
  • Mrs J. Pratt
  • Mr Jackson Hudson
  • Mrs G.M. Brough
  • Mrs M. Tait
  • Mr R. Medlock
  • Mrs Joan Clark
  • Miss D. Whaley
  • Mr A.W. Newsom
  • Miss Juliet Garfoot
  • Mrs J. Wilkinson
  • Mr A.B. Stephenson
  • Mrs A. Goffin
  • Mrs D. Woodcock
  • Mr Gordon Tait
  • Mrs M. Haigh
  • Mrs G. Woolcock
  • Mr C.R. Theobald
  • Mrs E. Jakes
  • Mr Hugh A.H. Walter
  • Mrs R. Lambert

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

  • Porter, E. George

Names of composers

n/a

Numbers of performers

800

Financial information

The Red Cross raised £280 on the day.1 The Festival overall made a small surplus.2

Object of any funds raised

n/a

Linked occasion

Festival of Britain

Audience information

  • Grandstand: Yes
  • Grandstand capacity: n/a
  • Total audience: 9000

Notes

4300 at the afternoon performance and 4700 at the evening performance.3

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

5s.–2s. 6d.

Associated events

  • 2–14 June. Arts and Crafts in the Assembly Rooms [3500 visited].
  • 1 June. Dance in the Assembly Rooms.
  • 2 June. Band of RAF College, Cranwell.
  • 7 June. Oratorio Handel’s Messiah at Boston Parish Church.
  • 8 June. Lecture by Mr J.W.F. Hull at the Guildhall of Boston Branch of the Historical Association.
  • 8 June. An open mixed American tennis tournament.

Pageant outline

Prologue. AD 654

Performed by St Mary’s Catholic Church, Hospital Bridge Sunday School and British Legion (Women’s Section).

St Botolph is seen converting groups of Saxons and addressing the people of Boston.

‘In this pageant we have accepted as true the story told by the Venerable Bede writing many generations later when English History was first recorded under Alfred the Great, that Father Botolph asked Ethelmund, a Mercian Duke, King of [the] Fenland tribes, for land on which to build a monastery, ‘a desolate spot removed from men’, and that he was given a site called Icanhoe, and that this place was Boston, and that it was there that he died’.5

Scene I

Performed by the North Sea Camp and Fishtoft Church.

Father Witham, Heron and Swan, as personifications of the nature of the Fens, untouched by time, act as commentators throughout the pageant.

First Father Withan and then Swan and Heron are seen to enter the arena. They meet and talk of Father Botolph and the monastery at Icanhoe, of King Ethelmund’s Court at Kirton, and of the conflict still waged between Saxons and Celts who defy the conquerors of England deep in the Fens. King Ethelmund and his court enter the arena where he is approached by a young woman, very distrait, who protests the innocence of a certain rebel Celt, Alan Toft, accused of kidnapping the King’s son. His innocence is soon proved, and a vow of friendship is made between Ethelmund and the Celts of Freiston.

Scene II

Performed by the Boston and District Youth Council.

The Monks are surprised by a band of Vikings who have sailed up the river; the local Saxon people rally to defend the Monastery, but their old prowess with the sword is gone and both they and the monks are slaughtered by the Danes, who sack the monastery.

Scene III

Performed by Holland Federation of Women’s Institutes and the Bargate Riding School.

A crusader is seen to enter St Nicholas’ Church, Skirbeck, to dedicate himself to his noble mission. He takes leave of his wife, family and friends outside the church and rides off with his retinue.

Scene IV. 1365

Performed by Boston Arts and Crafts Society, Boston Girl Guides, Zion Methodist Dramatic Society, Wainfleet Dramatic Society, British Legion, Holland Federation of Women’s Institutes and Bargate Riding School.

A Fair Scene in 1365, held from St Botolph’s Feast Day to St John the Baptist’s Day, 17–24 June. Pack horses bring wool to sell at Boston Staple.

Scene V. 14th Century

Performed by Representatives from various Churches.

The Guilds are seen to pass in procession from church.

Scene VI. c.1538

Performed by Thompson Football Team, Boston Playgoers Society and Boston Arts and Crafts Society.

The Monks are shown leaving Boston, Lord Hussey is arrested, and the Guilds hand their plate over to the King’s Men.

Scene VIa

Performed by Boston Business and Professional Women’s Club and Boston Townswomen’s Guild.

Two townsmen talk about the incorporation of the town and the borough’s new responsibilities.

Scene VII. c.1560s

Performed by Boston Playgoer’s Society, Centenary Boys’ Club, Fishtoft Church and the British Legion.

The Mayor and Corporation enter the arena. The town clerk makes a public announcement on the matter of piracy. The pirates are brought in, and the gallows are prepared. The Queen’s messenger hands over a communication on the results of the state lottery which is read by the town clerk, to the confounding of all: ‘In 1574 Boston suffered from pirate trouble and the port was brought near to ruin. Four pirates were captured and the Corporation appealed to the Lords of the Counsel in London for guidance’.6

Scene VIII. 1607

Performed by the Townswomen’s Guild and Business and Professional Women’s Club.

A party of Puritans on their way to Fishtoft are apprehended by Customs Officers and turned back. This is due to the Puritan congregation of Scrooby, persecuted and fleeing to Leiden but apprehended and fined by customs. ‘But the Scrooby people were undaunted and eventually all escaped from Immingham and Grimsby to Leyden in Holland, from whence in 1620 they sailed to Southampton to join English friends in forming the party now known as the Pilgrim Fathers’.7

Scene IX. 1567

Performed by Boston Schools.

Father Witham talks with schoolboys and meets the Beadle of the Blue Coat School.

This is contrasted to modern education: ‘Unfortunately we cannot bring everything on to the football ground, and so we cannot present to to-day’s audience the magnificent new Kitwood School which was opened in January, or the woodwork and the domestic science that is taught in schools, or the considerable sums of money which are spent out of public funds on sending Boston students to universities’.8

Scene X. 1768

By the Boston Grammar School.

The scene shows the riot of 1768 when soldiers were called upon to subdue the Fen Slodgers.

In 1762 the state of the River Witham, which was practically impassable to ships, was a matter of grave concern to all—except the so-called Fen Slodgers who made a living from the undrained, wild inland fens. Mr Edward’s proposal to build a Grand Sluice upstream on the Stump, to straighten the river, and to build a canal to Anton’s Gowt led to the draining of Holland Fen, but on the enclosures, following the awards to those who already claimed rights of pasture, the Fen Slodgers rioted and then marched on Boston causing trouble and concern.

Scene XI. 1846

By the Wyberton Theatrical Society, Wyberton Women’s Institute and Boston High School Old Girls’ Association.

The scene shows the inaugural ceremony when the first train on the Great Northern Railway reached Boston from London. The Mayor of Boston greeted the passengers, and Jean Ingelow read her poem ‘High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire’.

Scene XII. A Glimpse of Modern Boston, 1951

Organised by Mr J.D. Blades and Mr G.H. Gilchrist.

Procession of all performers.

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Botwulf [St Botwulf, Botolph] (fl. 654–c.670) abbot of Iken
  • Talbot, George, fourth earl of Shrewsbury and fourth earl of Waterford (1468–1538) magnate
  • Hussey, John, Baron Hussey (1465/6–1537) nobleman and alleged rebel
  • Beckett, Sir Edmund [known as Edmund Denison], fourth baronet (1787–1874) railway promoter and politician
  • Ingelow, Jean [pseud. Orris] (1820–1897) poet and writer

Musical production

Choirs by members of Boston Townswomen’s Guild, Kitwood Girl’s School and Boston Male Voice Choir. The R.A.F. Band (Cranwell College) performed musical accompaniment.

Newspaper coverage of pageant

Grantham Journal

Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian

Book of words

Pageant of Boston A.D. 654 to 1951. Boston, 1951.

Price: 6d.

Other primary published materials

n/a

References in secondary literature

n/a

Archival holdings connected to pageant

  • A film, A Boston Story, was made of the pageant and the Festival of Britain in Boston. Details available at Lincolnshire Film archive, accessed 3 March 2016, http://www.lincsfilm.co.uk/listings/listing121140.html.
  • Lincoln Central Library: Copy of the Pageant Programme. Reference 296390.

Sources used in preparation of pageant

  • Bede. Chronicles.

Summary

Boston had a tradition of holding pageants, in 1926, 1932 and 1934. However, when the town celebrated its 400th anniversary in May 1945, little was done to celebrate the event, with the Mayor rather forlornly writing to the local paper requesting that readers put out flags left over from the much larger VE Day celebrations the previous week.9 Despite the number of airbases around the town and the prominence of the spire of St Botolph’s Church, or ‘Boston Stump’, the town had survived the war with very little bomb-damage, though 17 civilians were killed in several raids.10

The 1951 Festival of Britain—which above all sought to revive the mood of a Britain dogged by seemingly never-ending austerity and rationing—was a late hurrah for the spirit of pageantry in a world in which pageantry appeared increasingly outmoded now that it was competing with cinema, theatre and (most of all) television. Though based on the Southbank of London, home of the famous ‘Skylon’, the Festival—which attempted to celebrate modernity at the same time as honouring the past—sought to kindle the spirit of a new, communal Britain across the regions through local exhibitions, concerts and events.11 The Festival, which embraced technological modernity, also harked back to the Great Exhibition of 1851. Seeking to foster a spirit of communalism created by the shared experience of war and Britain’s welfare state, it was ideally represented by historical pageants. These ranged from relatively large affairs such as the Pageant of Three Towns at Hampton Court (which also featured Boston’s Pageant Master, Christopher Ede) to relatively small village pageants such as those at East Grinstead in Sussex, Rushden in Northampton, and Dudley in the West Midlands, and in Grimsby in the north of the county.

Whilst most previous pageants had tended to focus on the prominent events of a place, generally featuring Kings, Dukes and other prominent or aristocratic people, the pageants held during the Festival of Britain often focused on the activities of ordinary people, presenting pageants as a form of social history influenced by G.M. Trevelyan’s phenomenally popular English Social History (1944). The Boston pageant was an exemplary example of the popular spirit of Festival pageantry. The figure of Father Witham (a personification of the river that flowed through the town), along with a heron and a swan (two local birds) acted as the narrators throughout, stressing the continuity of fenland life over the centuries. Boston was also presented as a place of dissent and justified protest, as evidenced in the arrest of Lord Hussey in Scene VI – Hussey being the reluctant figurehead (or alternately pawn) of the 1537 Lincolnshire rising for which he was tried and executed.12 The plight of the Scrooby Puritans is also presented sympathetically (in general, Puritans were presented in pageants as rather dour kill-joys), as is the cause of the Fen Slodgers, who protested at the draining of their livelihood in 1768.13 During the evening performance, the militia who resisted the Slodgers were aided by the presence of three fighter planes arriving early for the performance, which one commentator described as ‘something of an anachronism. On the stage the railway had not yet reached the town!’14 Worse still, the planes returned for the following scene when the poet Jean Ingelow (played by Margaret McGranachan), who was reciting the poem ‘High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire’, had her rendition completely drowned out. As the Lincolnshire Standard enquired, ‘what would Miss Ingelow have said?’15

Whilst pageants for much of the previous 45 years had been enthusiastically covered by journalists, whose reviews were characteristically panegyric, the tendency towards hyperbolic praise had faded in the post-war period, with many Festival pageants meeting with hostility from the local press. This was particularly the case when the local government was politically at odds with the (generally Conservative-leaning local newspaper), as with the Bradford Centenary Pageant of 1947 and the Wolverhampton Centenary Pageant of 1948.

The Festival of Britain had been widely criticized from its inception, both by the Conservative Party and much of the press (particularly that part of it owned by Lord Beaverbrook, proprietor of the Daily Express, the London Evening Standard and a number of provincial papers). It was attacked as, at best, an unaffordable expense at a time of continuing rationing and austerity and, at worst, a form of socialist anti-capitalist propaganda intended to sway a population tired of the drabness of the ‘Queuetopia’ of Austerity Britain into voting Labour.16 The Festival of Britain, and its local manifestations, can be seen as a wider conflict as to the direction of post-war Britain—one which pitted the values of collectivism against those of individualism, the free market against socialism, Conservative against Labour, and the history of the common people against that of Kings and nobles. The self-confessed ‘anti-socialist’ Lincolnshire Standard was characteristically critical of the pageant from both dramatic and financial perspectives, despite its concessions to the town’s history.17

Boston stood in a strange place politically. Its long-serving MP, Herbert Butcher (1901-1966), who represented the Holland with Boston constituency from 1937 until his death in 1966, was a member of the National Liberal Party that voted with the Conservative Party during the period. This faction, which broke from the Lloyd George Liberals in 1931, eventually merged with the Conservative Party in 1968.18 During this time no Conservative candidate stood for election in Boston. Butcher, who became the Chief Whip of the party in November 1950, was a pronounced critic of the Labour government over a number of issues, from local government to striking rights.19 In February 1951 he pledged full support to Churchill and the Conservatives in their attempt to defeat the Labour Government ‘at the earliest possible moment’.20 While the Festival of Britain was intended to represent a story of common purposes and mutual cooperation, free from class tension, the Boston Pageant, with its stress on the independence of the region, was a manifestation of liberal and anti-collectivist preferences at the height of two-party politics.

The Boston municipal elections of May 1951 cemented the dominance of the Conservatives and National Liberals, who took 13 and 7 seats respectively, compared with 3 Liberals, 4 Socialists and 1 Independent.21 However, the newspaper had noted with growing disquiet that very few seats were actually contested in council elections (none in 1949) and that the council was becoming increasingly unaccountable to its electors.22 Worse still, Boston’s Mayor, Councillor Roe, was the second ‘socialist’ to hold the position in two consecutive years.23 The Festival of Britain celebrations, of which the pageant was the main part, was seen as a vanity project designed, in the council’s own words, to ‘increase the public’s respect for their elected representatives’ and paid for out of the pockets of ratepayers.24 The minutiae of local election results in a town whose political landscape was practically unique in Britain reveal a growing hostility to the Labour government as well as to ideas of municipal collectivism, of which the 1951 Boston Pageant was a key example. This explains the general sense of ambivalence with which the Festival was met. Organisers implored local people to show ‘a real town effort’, rather than limiting participation to a few interested societies.25 The Lincolnshire Standard was characteristically ambivalent throughout, warning of problems of inaudibility and complaining about a number of the scenes.26 The paper was at best lukewarm about ‘hurried last-minute preparations’, hampered by a lorry driver strike and the rather chaotic dress rehearsals.27 The newspaper also hinted at a great deal of dissent and ‘nebulous’ planning in its references to the ‘oft debated Festival’.28

The pageant was opened by Butcher, alongside Mayor and Mayoress Roe, the Festival Queen Miss Thomas, and the Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Cunningham who spoke on the continuing importance of Anglo-American friendship (a nod to the heavy American military presence in the region) and warned of difficult times for democracy, which faced ‘a testimony of faith’:

During the war everyone put personal ambitions and interests behind them and subordinated them to the good of the state, to the good of the alliance, and the achievement of the common object. Through the spirit of willing sacrifice we won the war, and that same spirit was now needed to win and maintain the peace. If that spirit were not achieved then the whole of the freedom-loving nations would be in jeopardy.29

One commentator suggested that ‘a grand opportunity was missed to stress Boston’s link with the daughter city and the important part her sons had played in the development of New England and elsewhere’.30

The pageant was orchestrated by Christopher Ede who was Pageant Master for the much larger Hampton Court Pageant for the Festival and had produced or acted as Pageant Master for the 1934 Pageant of Parliament, the 1936 Newark Pageant and the 1947 Bradford Centenary Pageant (though the last one, which lost over £13000, may well have been stricken from his CV).31 Preparations began at the start of the year, with interest building gradually. Ede declared, on visiting Boston in February, that the script was ‘inspired’ and the pageant possessed ‘one of the most original opening scenes he had ever seen for any pageant’.32 Here he was presumably thinking of the personifications of a river, a heron and a swan, which were certainly somewhat unorthodox choices for the narrators.

Richard H. Ryan, who had also covered the less-than-encouraging dress rehearsals, remarked on a number of empty seats in the grandstand for the evening performance. He also noted that actual injuries were sustained during the ‘realistic’ fight between Saxons and Danes, and that a number of the militia from the Fen Slodgers scene accidentally discharged their rifles (presumably loaded with blanks) while backstage.33 Ryan, alongside ‘Sentinel’, who praised the ‘magnitude of the achievement in presenting so ambitious and colourful a spectacle’,34 was actually among the kindest of the Lincolnshire Standard’s reviewers. ‘GSB’, the paper’s chief dramatic critic, was overwhelmingly unsympathetic to the endeavour, suggesting that ‘so much, so very much, hard work goes into the making of any large-scale pageant that it seems almost invidious to criticise the product adversely. But fulsome praise, when unwarranted, is valueless to those who have busied themselves with the organisation and presentation’.35 Despite ‘the general smoothness of its running, its cohesion, and its colourfulness…to my mind, there were several inherent weaknesses. First and foremost, all too often it lacked spectacle and movement, and relied too much on the spoken word. Possibly this was in no small measure due to the selection of historical incidents it attempted to portray’.36 The author continued: ‘With a history as rich as that of Boston, there must be, I felt, not a few incidents whose recounting would have provided more spectacular entertainment than some of those chosen’. He then went on to single out individual episodes for particular disdain. He remarked that thanks to the dancing and PT put on by the schools there was ‘for a brief spell…action, variety, life’, declaring: ‘Here was true pageantry.’ He contrasted this with many of the less lively scenes such as the School of 1714 with its ‘‘high fallutin’ talk about Shakespeare, Pope and heroic couplets—and no action’.37 This was compounded when ‘some of the younger spectators…became a little restive’, presumably because ‘all too often…humour was conspicuous by its absence’.38 The irate reviewer went on to lambast the pageant for failing to represent local industries such as canning and fishing: ‘There was nothing to bring home Boston’s present-day and centuries old dependence on agriculture for prosperity’. At a time when Britain was suffering from a rationing that was more restrictive than during wartime, Boston’s food-production was of national importance and, in the reviewer’s mind, ought to have been far more prominent in its story.

The Finale was symptomatic of the strange refusal of the pageant to really celebrate the town: ‘Here was a chance for spectacle on the grand scale, a chance… really to “blow our own trumpets”. What a pity it was not seized with both hands’.39 (Rather incongruously, the anonymous commentator remarked that the ‘two hours’ entertainment… will long be remembered, as long, indeed, as Boston’s contribution to this year’s festival is recalled and talked about’. He stated that, overall, the pageant was a ‘colourful sight indeed. Yes, there was certainly much to interest, excite and amuse. Entertainment of the kind we are unlikely to see again for many a long day’.40) In fact, a few weeks later, the newspaper was comparing the pageant unfavourably to the Boston Air Show.41 The paper also complained that the pageant meant that the re-grounding of Boston United’s football pitch was now behind schedule.42 The Festival attracted a less-than-stellar 9000 attendees. Though the Red Cross made a decent collection of £280 on the day, the Pageant made a loss and it was only in October, after a number of more profitable events, that the Executive Committee could declare that the Festival as a whole would make a welcome, albeit small, profit.43

At the general election of October 1951, the collapse of the Liberal vote brought the Conservative Party to power.44 Liberal candidates survived almost exclusively in the areas where there were anti-Labour electoral pacts, such as Boston and Holland. In fact, with 19 seats (a gain of 3), the National Liberals held the balance of power, boosting the Conservative majority to 17.45 Butcher, who had increased his majority over Labour by 1350 votes, was rewarded for his support of the Conservatives by becoming the government’s Joint Deputy Chief Whip and a Law Commissioner to the Treasury; he was later an instrumental figure under Harold Macmillan, who succeeded Anthony Eden as Prime Minister in 1957.46 The new Conservative government had been notoriously hostile to the Festival of Britain and proceeded to dismantle much of the Southbank site, including the famous Skylon, erasing (as much as possible) memories of the Festival that had been intended to mark the dawn of the Welfare State.47 The end results of the Festival of Britain in towns such as Boston (aside from the surviving film footage)48 were pithily encapsulated by the Manchester Guardian:

In the rest of the country the Festival will leave small things behind it—a concert hall here, a paddling pool there, a grove of trees on that hill-side, a stoutly made (or ‘fashioned’ as they say in Festival English) bench by this footpath overlooking the meadow where they held the pageant—‘a hundred years of Muddlethrough Barn’ produced by a gentleman from London (failed RADA).49

Below the surface of the 1951 Festival of Britain Pageant in Boston lay a complex texture of local political allegiances which, despite the town’s unique Liberal heritage, reflected the national mood in its rejection of the Labour Party. Although the pageant, like the Festival, attempted to look back at a common past with the aim of projecting a shared, collectivist future, already by 1951 this vision of a New Jerusalem seemed a thing of the past.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 23 June 1951, 10.
  2. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 6 October 1951, 5.
  3. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 9 June 1951, 10.
  4. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 16 June 1951, 5.
  5. ^ Pageant of Boston A.D. 654 to 1951 (Boston, 1951), 11.
  6. ^ Pageant of Boston A.D. 654 to 1951 (Boston, 1951), 21.
  7. ^ Pageant of Boston A.D. 654 to 1951 (Boston, 1951), 23.
  8. ^ Pageant of Boston A.D. 654 to 1951 (Boston, 1951), 23.
  9. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 12 May 1945, 8.
  10. ^ Accessed 3 March 2016, Cemetery Detaily – Boston Cemetery http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/41400/BOSTON%20CEMETERY; Lincolnshire Echo, 29 January 1941, 3.
  11. ^ Becky Conekin, ‘The Autobiography of a Nation’: The 1951 Festival of Britain (Manchester, 2003), 88–104; Harriet Atkinson, The Festival of Britain: A Land and Its People (London, 2012), 63. See also Mark Freeman, ‘“Splendid Display; Pompous Spectacle”: Historical Pageants in Twentieth-Century Britain’, Social History 38, no. 4 (2013): 423–455.
  12. ^ R.W. Hoyle, ‘Hussey, John, Baron Hussey (1465/6–1537)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed 3 March 2016, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14266?docPos=3.
  13. ^ H.C. Darby, The Draining of the Fens (Cambridge, 1968), 148–155.
  14. ^ Richard H. Ryan, ‘Backstage Notebook’, Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 9 June 1951, 10.
  15. ^ GSB, Lincolnshire Standard, 9 June 1951, 10. The poem is available online, accessed 3 March 2016, http://www.bartleby.com/246/604.html.
  16. ^ Barry Turner, Beacon for Change: How the 1951 Festival of Britain Helped to Shape a New Age (London, 2011), 106–109.
  17. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston, 17 February 1951, 10.
  18. ^ See David Dutton, Liberals in Schism: A History of the National Liberal Party (London, 2008).
  19. ^ The Times, 9 November 1950, 3.
  20. ^ The Times, 26 February 1951, 2.
  21. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 19 May 1951, 8.
  22. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 30 April 1949, 5.
  23. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 17 February 1951, 10. However, the paper conceded that it was appropriate for the Mayor (a position generally considered to be above party politics) to be a socialist in the Festival year.
  24. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 7 July 1951, 10.
  25. ^ Ibid.
  26. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 19 May 1951, 5.
  27. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 2 June 1951, 5.
  28. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 5 May 1951, 5.
  29. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 9 June 1951, 8.
  30. ^ GSB, Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 9 June 1951, 10.
  31. ^ Accessed 3 March 2016, A Festival tale of two cities: Leeds and Bradford, http://bradford.festivalofbritain.woodhousemoor.com/a-festival-tale-of-two-cities-leeds-bradford.
  32. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 10 February 1951, 5.
  33. ^ Richard H. Ryan, ‘Backstage Notebook’, Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 9 June 1951, 10.
  34. ^ ‘Sentinel’, Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 9 June 1951, 10.
  35. ^ GSB, Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 9 June 1951, 10.
  36. ^ Ibid.
  37. ^ Ibid.
  38. ^ Ibid.
  39. ^ Ibid.
  40. ^ Ibid.
  41. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 23 June 1951, 7.
  42. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 16 June 1951, 7.
  43. ^ Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 23 June 1951, 10 and 6 October 1951, 5.
  44. ^ Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945-51 (Oxford, 1984), 483–486.
  45. ^ Accessed 3 March 2016, Politics Resources, General Election, 25th October 1951, http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge51/results.htm.
  46. ^ ‘Obituary of Herbert Baker’, The Times, 12 May 1966, 14.
  47. ^ Conekin, ‘Autobiography of a Nation’, 232–236.
  48. ^ Accessed 3 March 2016, Lincolnshire Film Archive Listings, http://www.lincsfilm.co.uk/listings/listing121140.html and http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//RTV/1951/06/07/BGX412090095/?s=*.
  49. ^ ‘Fun and Games in a Cold Climate’, Manchester Guardian, 29 September 1951, 4, accessed 25 April 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1951/sep/29/fromthearchive

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Pageant of Boston’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/999/