Pageants 24
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The Bury St Edmunds Pageant of Magna Carta
The Bury St Edmunds Magna Carta Pageant of 1959 was a major event, with 12 ticketed performances across 10 days. While it picked up on many of the themes of the 1907 pageant the town had held, most... -
The Dover Pageant
Dover’s staging of a historical folk-play in 1908 was a nationally important and spectacular example of an Edwardian town gripped by ‘pageantitis’. Directed by the original master himself, Louis Na... -
The Axbridge Pageant
The Axbridge Pageant of 1970 was the second performance of the same event staged three years previously, seemingly spurred on by its success. It was timed to coincide with the signing of the town’s... -
Lancaster Historical Pageant
The pageant held in 1930 was the second great civic pageant undertaken by Lancaster under Harold Hastings' direction, the first being in 1913. In the preface to the book of words, the pageant maste... -
Reading Historical Pageant
Jonathan Rose argues that the Edwardian period did not suffer instantaneous death on Flanders Field but rather lingered on into the post-war period, finally succumbing only in the mid-1920s.3 The R... -
Sir Walter Scott Centenary Perth Pageant
Described as a 'red letter day in the city' and as 'a striking climax' to a weeklong anniversary celebration, there can be no doubt, that for a city the size of Perth this was an extremely successf... -
The Axbridge Pageant
The Axbridge Pageant of 1967 was a small local event, staged to celebrate the opening of the A371 Axbridge Bypass. Despite a fairly general lack of historical pageantry in the 1960s, it inspired a ... -
Axbridge Pageant 2010
The Axbridge Pageant of 2010 was the sixth outing for the event first staged in 1967 to commemorate the opening of the A371 Axbridge bypass. As had been the case for some time, the Axbridge Pageant... -
The Wisbech Pageant
The idea for a pageant in Wisbech was first mooted by the town’s Mayor, J.W.A. Ollard, in his inaugural speech in 1928, where he spoke of his ‘dream’ for a ‘monster’ pageant in the town.3 Such an e... -
The Axbridge Pageant 2000
The Axbridge Pageant of 2000 was the fifth outing for the event first staged in 1967 to commemorate the opening of the A371 Axbridge bypass. Again the pageant was performed three times, though with... -
Bridport Royal Charter Pageant
The Bridport Pageant, or ‘Bridport Through the Ages’, was a medium-sized event, consisting of eight episodes, 1300 performers and six performances—impressive considering Bridport was only a small t... -
The Conway Pageant: Pageant Plays
The Conway Bridge Centenary Celebration of 1927 was a major week-long civic event, commemorating the 1826 engineering feat of Thomas Telford. Two historical pageants were produced, as well as a his... -
Pageant of Farnham
The Pageant of Farnham was the first of many pageants devised by Neville Lovett (the future Bishop of Salisbury and Portsmouth). It was held to repay some of the debts on the Church House (now Vine... -
The Pageant of Newark
The Pageant of Newark was first proposed in July 1935 by Douglas P. Blatherwick, a local writer of plays and music, at a Town Hall meeting chaired by the Mayor, P.J.C. Staniland. From the beginning... -
The Axbridge Pageant
The Axbridge Pageant of 1990 was the fourth outing for the original performed in 1967, and even bigger and more popular than the previous three (see entries for 1967, 1970, 1980). It followed on fr... -
Historical Pageant of Huntingdonshire
Huntingdon had not held a pageant since the wildly successful pageant at Hinchingbrooke in 1912, though there had been further pageants in the county (e.g., Buckden, 1932). Hinchingbrooke House.1 T... -
Pageant of Runnymede
In 1921 there had been outcry when the government attempted to sell Runnymeade Meadow for development, the proposal only being averted when the civil engineer Urban Broughton bought the land. His w... -
The Pickering Pageant (or Historical Play)
Pageants were very popular in the North Riding of Yorkshire, as in other parts of the country, before the First World War. Thirsk staged a ‘historical play’ in 1907; York in 1909; and Scarborough ... -
The Pageant of Wisbech
Wisbech had previously held a pageant in 1929 which was written by the famous historian Arthur Bryant. The pageant was witnessed by over 25000 people and made £500 profit. The Wisbech Pageant of 19... -
Chilham Castle Pageant
The pageants that were held immediately after 1945 were suffused with the weight of the war just past. Chilham Castle is a large Tudor-style manor house that lies between Ashford and Canterbury in ...