The Spirit of Warwickshire

Other names

  • Great Historical Pageant

Pageant type

Notes

The pageant was organised by the Women’s Institute

Jump to Summary

Performances

Place: Warwick Castle (Warwick) (Warwick, Warwickshire, England)

Year: 1930

Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors

Number of performances: 8

Notes

16–19 July 1930

At 3pm and 6.30pm daily

Name of pageant master and other named staff

  • Pageant Master: Lally, Gwen
  • President: Countess of Warwick
  • Mistress of the Robes: Lady Bird
  • Master of the Horse: Captain C.E. Dalton
  • Property Masters: Mr W.N.M. Greenwell; Mr C. Bates
  • Manager of Arena: Captain W. Godfrey-Payton
  • Hon. Organising Secretary: Miss Winifred Walker, OBE
  • Director of Music: Capt. Allen K. Blackall, FRCO
  • Assistant Director of Music: A.E. Walker
  • Deputy Conductor: H.E. Briscoe, ARCO
  • Producer’s Assistant: Margaret Fraser

Names of executive committee or equivalent

General Committee:

  • Chairman: Lady Ilkestone

Organising Committee:

  • Chairman: Mrs Gordon Bland

Finance Committee:

  • Chairman: A. Holt, Esq.

Stand Committee:

  • Chairman: W.S. Howard, Esq.

Advertising and Publicity Committee:

  • E. Hicks, Esq.

Introductory Episode:

  • Chairman: Miss Doorly

Episode I:

  • Chairman: Mrs Hosking [Dunchurch Area]

Episode II:

  • Chairman: Mrs Hugh Chattock [Coleshill Area]

Episode III:

  • Chairman: Mrs Wheatley [Berkswell Area]

Episode IV:

  • Chairman: Mrs Tibbits [Warwick Area]

Episode V:

  • Chairman: Lady Bird [Solihull Area]

Episode VI:

  • Chairman: Lady Flower [Stratford Area]

Episode VII:

  • Chairman: The Hon. Mrs Hanbury [Kineton Area]

Episode VIII:

  • Chairman: Mrs Tibbits [Warwick Area]

Episode IX:

  • Chairman: Mrs Holt [Leamington Area]

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

  • Drinkwater, John
  • Crompton Rhodes, R.
  • Palmer, Frederick C.
  • Topham, Mrs A.R.

Notes

  • Drinkwater: Prologue and epilogue.
  • Rhodes: The scenes.
  • Palmer: Dialogues.
  • Topham: Episode IV.

Names of composers

  • Blackall, Allen K.

Numbers of performers

5000

Financial information

Income
Donations: £35. 4s. 0d.
Sale of Tickets: £5026. 18s. 10d.
Programmes: £196. 9s. 8d.
Cushions: £8. 6s. 1d.
Car Park: £155. 2s. 0d.
Refreshments: £29. 18s. 9d.
Sale of Costumes: £598. 13s. 7d.
Sale of Properties: £18. 18s. 0d.
Refund on Telephone: £3. 19s. 1d.
Insurance Reclaim: £11. 1s. 3d.
Sundries: £0. 11s. 10d.
Total: £6085. 3s. 1d.

Expenditure
Lally’s Salary: £250. 0s. 0d.
Lally Expenses: £87. 3s. 5d.
Stage Managers’ Expenses: £59. 14s. 10d.
Mr Blackall, MD: £105. 0s. 0d.
Orchestra: £348. 3s. 11d.
Author: £20. 0s. 0d.
Lyricist: £15. 15s. 0d.
Wardrobe Expenses: £164. 19s. 6d.
Wardrobe Materials: £672. 6s. 8d.
Perruquiers: £77. 17s. 6d.
Wig Hire: £52. 8s. 6d.
Horses, Coaches, Properties: £531. 13s. 3d.
Preparing Arena: £160. 3s. 8d.
Stands and Bridges: £607. 6s. 6d.
Tents and Equipment: £242. 11s. 3d.
Wireless Instalment: £57. 5s. 0d.
Bill Posting: £84. 0s. 0d.
Printing, Advertising, Stationery: £571. 5s. 9d.
Ambulance: £6. 16s. 8d.
Secretary: £68. 12s. 6d.
Office Expenses: £57. 9s. 8d.
Postage and Telephone: £40. 7s. 7d.
Insurance: £53. 0s. 0d.
Bank Charges: £3. 15s. 3d.
Sundries: £11. 18s. 2d.

Balance of Profit paid to Warwickshire Federation of WI’s: £1732. 8s. 6d.1

Object of any funds raised

In aid of the Warwickshire Federation of Women’s Institutes.

Linked occasion

n/a

Audience information

  • Grandstand: Yes
  • Grandstand capacity: Approx. 6000
  • Total audience: 45000

Notes

Newspaper reports suggested that around 6000 watched each performance. Given the amount raised from tickets, this figure is likely to have been met at each performance.

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

£1. 1s.–2s. 6d.

Associated events

n/a

Pageant outline

Prologue

Addressed by the spirit of Warwick. There follows a dialogue between Titania and Puck about Warwickshire as it used to be.

Episode I. The Founding of Warwick by Cymbeline

A tribe of Britons flee before Cymbeline and enter Arden. As they prepare food, Cymbeline’s forces are upon them, and they surrender. Cymbeline offers his friendship to the chief. Cymbeline explains that he has come to settle. There is a druidic ceremony and a procession towards a bridge over the river.

Episode II. St Augustine in Warwickshire

Villagers are watching priests of Thor erect an idol, who also encourage a King and Queen to worship it. As they do so, chants are heard, and St Augustine and a procession of monks enter. Mercians menace them, but they pay no heed and surround the altar. Augustine and the priest face each other. The priest is about to strike, but Augustine says a benediction and the priest drops the club. Augustine takes it and demolishes the idol, then ordering the erection of a cross. He gives his blessing to the kneeling people and departs.

Episode III. The Normans in Warwick

The scene is Warwick market place. A group of Norman men-at-arms deliver a proclamation to the town clerk. William Rufus and Robert de Newburgh2 enter, accompanied by more soldiers and other Norman Lords and Ladies. The proclamation is displayed; it appoints Robert de Newburgh earl of Warwick, dispossessing Thorkil – who had been the Anglo-Saxon Sheriff of Warwick. De Newburgh swears fealty to the king, and the other lords present are then summoned to do likewise. The Mercian Thane Edric refuses, and is told that he will be executed for treason. Thorkil is then forced to pay homage to the newly-installed earl of Warwick, and retires to his manor of Curdworth. (It is suggested in the souvenir programme that Mary Arden, mother of William Shakespeare, was one of Thorkil’s descendents.)

Episode IV. The Passing of Richard Beauchamp

Devised by Mrs A.R. Topham, this episode has as its subject the funeral of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, on 4 October 1439. A great crowd has gathered for the event. The funeral procession enters and then passes on to the church. The action then shifts to the Castle, where the new earl is given a festive welcome. The King’s Herald then arrives and delivers a scroll of honours to the earl. A ‘battle of roses’ then takes place, which sees Richard Neville replace the red rose put in his hat by Eleanor, wife of Somerset, with a white rose. The crowd then starts to disperse, vespers are heard being sung, and a member of the town Watch is startled by a leper. The leper sees the discarded red and white roses, and picks them up, only to drop them when he realizes he is being observed by the watchman. ‘But the creature of ill omen has touched the red and white roses. Was it fate?’

Episode V. Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth

It is July 1575. Queen Elizabeth arrives at Kenilworth Castle, seat of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.3 Her procession is met by the gatekeeper, who presents the queen with the key to the castle as a token of his master’s homage. Lord Leicester then receives the queen and, soon after, the festivities commence with a mime of welcome by ‘the Lady of the Lake’ with her attendant nymphs and children. The queen then passes through ‘an avenue of sea-gods and sea-goddesses, who present their gifts in honour of the Queen’s Sovereignty of the Seas’. Represented by the mayor and other local notables, the town of Warwick then pays homage to the queen, and the episode concludes with a ‘stately parvane’ danced by courtiers, and the performance of a Warwickshire Mummer’s play (‘Saint George and the Dragon’) by a troupe from Stratford-on-Avon.

Episode VI. Shakespeare’s Dream

A young Shakespeare (aged 22) and his friends contemplate the surroundings. He becomes drowsy and, left by his friends, sleeps on a mossy bank. He dreams of the figures from his prayers who pass by. As they vanish, Shakespeare is awakened by the Queen’s Players, who enjoin him to come with them, despite the entreaties of Anne Hathaway and Mary Shakespeare.

Episode VII. Before Edgehill

A housekeeper emerges from a Royalist house. Cavaliers announce the King’s arrival, and the housekeeper fetches the famous Doctor Harvey. Royalist ladies enter. There is great excitement as the King and his two sons enter and are greeted. The King commands the loyalty of Warwickshire subjects. A Cavalier announces that Roundhead troops have been sighted. The King leaves the Princes to ride to the field of Edgehill. The Roundheads appear and fire a cannon at the house. The Princes are rescued, and villagers rush about in confusion.

Episode VIII. Warwick Mop, 1759

Children are playing games. The town fire brigade comes in with the beadle who explains the working of the engine. The children spray the beadle who chases them. Stalls are erected. The Mayor opens the fair but is interrupted by merrymaking. There follows a fair including a Punch and Judy Show, fortune-tellers, acrobats, contortionists and so on. Men sing a drinking song, servants are hired and sergeants recruit soldiers. News is announced of the victory in Quebec. ‘Hearts of Oak’ is played by a band, and the Mop disperses.

Episode IX. The Prince Regent at Leamington, 1819

While visiting Warwick Castle in October 1819, the Prince Regent was invited to inspect the spa at Leamington. The episode begins with a crowd of Leamington townspeople, including a veteran of Trafalgar, awaiting the arrival of the prince. He drives in, accompanied by his hosts the earl and countess of Warwick, and is presented with an address on behalf of the people of Leamington. ‘Old Mrs. Satchell, whose husband was one of the discoverers of the Well’, then comes forward and offers the prince a glass of spa water. Titania and Puck then appear to summon the spirits of the past, who appear with Shakespeare in pride of place. The assembled performers then sing ‘Jerusalem’.

Epilogue

Titania and Puck summon spirits of the past. Personages surround Shakespeare. There is a mass singing of ‘Jerusalem’ and the Epilogue is spoken.

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Guy of Warwick (supp. fl. c.930) legendary hero
  • Cunobelinus [Cymbeline] (d. c.AD 40) king in southern Britain
  • Augustine [St Augustine] (d. 604) missionary and archbishop of Canterbury
  • William II [known as William Rufus] (c.1060–1100) king of England
  • Beaumont [Newburgh], Henry de, first earl of Warwick (d. 1119) magnate
  • Beauchamp, Richard, thirteenth earl of Warwick (1382–1439) magnate
  • Fastolf, Sir John (1380–1459) soldier and landowner
  • Beauchamp, Henry, duke of Warwick (1425–1446) magnate
  • Neville, Richard, sixteenth earl of Warwick and sixth earl of Salisbury [called the Kingmaker] (1428–1471) magnate
  • Stafford, Humphrey, first duke of Buckingham (1402–1460) soldier and magnate
  • Elizabeth I (1533–1603) queen of England and Ireland
  • Dudley, Robert, earl of Leicester (1532/3–1588) courtier and magnate
  • George [St George] (d. c.303?) patron saint of England
  • Anne Hathaway (1555/6–1623)
  • Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) playwright and poet
  • Charles I (1600–1649) king of England, Scotland, and Ireland
  • Rupert, prince and count palatine of the Rhine and duke of Cumberland (1619–1682) royalist army and naval officer
  • Verney, Sir Edmund (1616–1649) royalist army officer
  • Charles II (1630–1685) king of England, Scotland, and Ireland
  • James II and VII (1633–1701) king of England, Scotland, and Ireland
  • Harvey, William (1578–1657) physician and discoverer of the circulation of the blood
  • George IV (1762–1830) king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and king of Hanover
  • Abercromby, Sir John (1772–1817) army officer
  • Parr, Bartholomew (1750–1810) physician and medical author
  • Conway, Francis Ingram-Seymour-, second marquess of Hertford (1743–1822) politician
  • Leigh, Chandos, first Baron Leigh (1791–1850) poet and literary patron

Musical production

Orchestra of members of the Birmingham City Orchestra and Leamington Orchestral Society. The following pieces were performed:

  • ‘Aeterna Christi Munera’ and ‘Te deum’ (Episode II).
  • Canon, ‘Sumer Is Icumen In’ and Antiphon, ‘Ave Regina’ (Episode IV).
  • Pavane (Episode V).
  • ‘Hearts of Oak’ (Episode VIII).
  • ‘Jerusalem’ (Episode IX).
  • ‘O Pageantry of Warwickshire’.

Newspaper coverage of pageant

Leamington Spa Courier
The Era
BBC Midlands Regional Programme
Brisbane Courier
Gloucester Journal
Tamworth Herald
The Times
Manchester Guardian

Book of words

n/a

Other primary published materials

  • Official Souvenir Programme Book of the Pageant. London, 1930.

Copy held in Bodleian Library, Oxford.

References in secondary literature

n/a

Archival holdings connected to pageant

n/a

Sources used in preparation of pageant

n/a

Summary

Parker’s spectacular 1906 pageant had made a great impression on the people of Warwick; as the Tamworth Herald reported in January 1930, the event ‘was still spoken of in the county as “The Pageant”’.4 And it was with a view to reviving the spirit of the first performance that another was planned for the town in that year. Parker was not involved this time, though many of those involved had also taken part in his Orpheus, an open-air play staged in the grounds of Warwick Castle in 1923,5 and the overall conception and execution roughly followed the Parkerian model.

In some respects, however, the 1930 Pageant was quite different from that of 1906. Most obviously, perhaps, more of the leading people involved were women. Although the overall idea of the pageant was devised by a man (R. Compton Rhodes, a drama critic), its execution was placed in the hands of Gwen Lally, a female theatre producer who had been directing village pageants since the mid-1920s, and who would go on to produce a number of major pageants including Runnymede (1934) and Birmingham (1938).6 While the scale of the Warwick pageant far exceeded that of those Lally had previously produced, in some ways she was an obvious choice. Many of Lally’s earlier pageants had involved the Women’s Institute, with whom she had been closely associated since 1923, and to a large extent the Warwick pageant was the brainchild of the county WI. This was reflected in the composition of its General Committee, the majority of whose members were women, and whose chairman (sic) was Lady Mildred Ilkeston, President of the Warwickshire Federation of Women’s Institutes. Any profits generated by the pageant were to go to the county WI, the aim being to raise £4,000. The pageant was one of a number of WI County Pageants including:

The involvement of the WI also had an impact on the practical organization of the pageant. As might perhaps be expected, the Institute was particularly adept at costume-making, though the sheer scale of the pageant (with 5000 performers) stretched even its capabilities. By early April some 800 costumes had been made, but the Leamington Spa Courier, which had already asked for people ‘to help in the Pageant by singing, dancing, appearing in the crowd, and dress and property making’,7 appealed for further helpers with the following remark: ‘However much we may enjoy the freedom of our short skirts, there is something very exciting about trailing round—once in a while—in a frock which sweeps the floor’.8 The newspaper congratulated the precise organisation of the pageant, which had been going for months, for its foresight: ‘The scattered sunshine of the last few days has set us all thinking with eager anticipation of the coming summer. But there are many Warwickshire folk who have been thinking of and planning for the summer for weeks and months past…It was hard to think enthusiastically of an outdoor event at Christmas-time, although many were busy planning even then; but now that the days are longer and warmer the hopes of everyone are rising steadily’.9

In terms of the drama itself, a specific WI ‘area committee’ was given responsibility for each episode; thus episode I was undertaken by the Dunchurch committee, episode II by the Coleshill committee, and so on. This set-up was characteristic of interwar pageants connected to the Women’s Institute. It also reflected a conceptualisation of the pageant not, as in 1906, about the history of the town of Warwick, but rather about the history of the county of Warwickshire. Although the Warwick committee was responsible for two episodes (IV and VIII), the history of the town did not dominate in the same way as it had done in 1906: indeed, more than half the episodes were set in other places in the county.

Another difference between 1906 and 1930 was in the narrative content of the two pageants. The 1930 pageant consciously avoided any direct overlaps in scenes, going so far as to suggest an alternative foundation myth, based very loosely on Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. By contrast, the 1906 pageant had focused on Caradoc, son of Cymbeline, and his encounters with the Romans. However, both pageants featured a druidic ceremony. Like the 1906 pageant, the Spirit of Warwickshire makes extensive use of the works and characters from Shakespeare, without the wholesale adaptation of a scene or scenes from a single play. The prologue and epilogue were written by the poet, playwright, actor and all-round man of letters John Drinkwater, who would write prologues and epilogues for the 1934 Shropshire Historical Pageant (commemorating the tercentenary of the first performance of Milton’s Comus at Ludlow Castle) and for the 1934 Pageant of Runnymede.10 Here, at Warwick, instead of channelling Milton or the spirit of English liberty in the pageant prologue, Drinkwater wrote (alongside the archetypal address by a ‘Spirit of Warwick’, representing the county) a dialogue between Titania and Puck, fairies from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A similarly fanciful device preceded the episodes that followed, each of which being introduced through a dialogue between Guy of Warwick and his lover Felice.

The 1930 pageant also covered a much wider chronological range than its predecessor. While the pageant of 1906 ended with the Warwick fire of 1694, this one took the action up through the early modern period into the nineteenth century, closing with the visit of George IV – as Prince Regent – to Leamington in 1819. Another contrast was found in the decision not to avoid the Civil War. Charles I and his sons featured in episode VII, with the pageant’s sympathies apparently being aligned to the Royalist rather than the Parliamentarian side.

Indeed, the prominence of royalty was a striking feature of the pageant. Kings and Queens of England featured in most of the episodes. This can be seen as reflective of the pageant’s patriotic intent, expressive of a desire to connect the history of Warwickshire to the wider national story. This patriotism did not rely so heavily on Christianity (less present than in 1906), but was certainly conservative in its ideological complexion. This is perhaps not surprising given the party political complexion of interwar Warwickshire,11 and the dominance of county gentry and nobility among the pageant’s patrons. British national greatness is referenced quite obviously in episode V, where the Merrie England revelry involved celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s ‘sovereignty of the seas’. It is also notably present in Episode VIII, where the boisterous pleasures of the Warwick town fair are interrupted by news of the British victory at Quebec, prompting the fair-goers to launch into a rendition of ‘Hearts of Oak’. Such elements perhaps reflected a desire to shore up national self-confidence at a time of increasing international tension, but it was impossible to exclude entirely the contemporary world. In a remark uncannily reminiscent of an episode in Virginia Woolf’s novel Between the Acts, the storyline of which focused on a fictional interwar pageant, one newspaper report noted that ‘Sometimes, of course, one is brought back to 1930 with a jerk, as when an aeroplane drones its path above the arena’.12

Notwithstanding its conservative inflections, however, the pageant did set out to present a factually accurate account of Warwickshire history. Although Guy of Warwick, his consort Felise [Felice], and Titania and Puck were used to introduce the episodes, myth was largely eschewed in the episodes themselves. There was no Dun Cow. Indeed, the local press claimed that the pageant would not only be remembered as a ‘glorious spectacle’, but also as ‘an historical representation of amazing fidelity’.13 This may well have been so, but errors were certainly present. Probably the worst of these was the appearance of Robert de Newburgh as first earl of Warwick in episode III, when in fact the real first earl was Henry de Newburgh [i.e. Henry de Beaumont]. Another error (or perhaps deliberate inaccuracy) was perpetrated in episode V, which had Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, accompanied by ‘Lady Leicester’ – but in 1575, when the episode is set, the earl was unmarried. Such inaccuracies do not seem to have been noted by contemporaries, who judged the pageant a great success. Performances were seemingly sold out, tickets being much sought after (to the extent that on one day, touts were reportedly selling them for as much as £5 5s).14

In 1929, Lally had been responsible for a large-scale event at Kidbrooke Park in Ashdown Forest, Sussex, which had involved nearly one thousand performers (including A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin); with a cast five times the size of this, Warwick was by far her most ambitious pageant yet for a Pageant Master who pushed pageantry to its limits of scale. It attracted attention commensurate with its scale; a running commentary on the first day’s performance was broadcast on regional radio stations, together with a talk on Warwick history by Lord Ilkeston.15 The broadcast attracted considerable attention from the national press. For the Manchester Guardian, ‘Not the absence of colour and movement but their mysterious though elusive presence was the remarkable fact that emerged from the broadcast’, which despite being plagued by technical difficulties (‘for a very long time a noise resembling Morse did its best to obliterate the entertainment’) offered ‘a very fine impression of an excellent pageant… to those not fortunate enough to be able to be present’.16

The pageant was an unqualified success, surpassing the attendance of the 1906 pageant, though not matching it in ticket sales due to a lower overall admissions price in absolute terms. The Times, while lamenting the poor weather on the afternoon its correspondent viewed the pageant, praised Lally’s production as being ‘delightful in its colour and groupings’ and praised the funeral scene, involving real Catholic priests (Father McCarthy and Father Dale), for ‘a degree of exactness not usually attained in pageants’.17 The newspaper also singled out Elizabeth’s visit to Kenilworth and the Warwick ‘Mop’, along with the Prince Regent’s visit to Leamington.18 Anticipating Drinkwater’s subsequent prologue for the Shropshire Historical Pageant, it noted that he ‘praised Warwickshire sufficiently, without compromising himself with other counties’.19 The rites performed by Catholic Priests struck a correspondent visiting from Australia, who reported in the Brisbane Courier in November that ‘pageants are teaching Christian co-operation as well as history, and the recent Warwick historical pageant went further than any yet in bringing different denominations together.’20 The antipodean tourist was particularly struck by ‘The capable and enthusiastic quality of the players, from principals down to the rank and file, and the bewitching imps and elfins, who helped in the fairy prologues and interludes, ensured the triumph of the pageant…It is astonishing how well it bore comparison with Warwick’s last venture of the kind’.21 Though the Manchester Guardian was a good deal closer than Brisbane, its correspondent chose, instead, to catch the broadcast of the pageant on the BBC Midlands Regional Programme,22 reviewing the broadcast with striking results: ‘Not the absence of colour and movement but their mysterious though elusive presence was the remarkable fact that emerged from the broadcast’.23 The pageant-listener complained of the poor quality of the transmission: ‘It was very difficult to disentangle the announcer’s voice from the medley of noises incidental to the pageant, there was a break in the line at one period, and for a very long time a noise resembling Morse did its best to obliterate the entertainment’.24 Nevertheless, the commentator remarked that ‘we saw Shakespeare put to sleep by Titania and her fairies’ and particularly warmed to the final scene with the Warwick Mop: ‘No doubt the spectacle far outrivalled the sound in joy, but here at any rate was a very fine impression of an excellent pageant made by the radio to those who were not fortunate enough to be able to be present’.25

The pageant raised a much welcome £1732 for the Warwickshire Federation of Women’s Institutes (even after Lally’s salary of £250 plus £87 in expenses).26 The experience showed that Warwickshire could put on, as a county, grand-scale pageants. Despite heavy rain, the Kenilworth Castle Pageant (1939), organised by Anthony Parker, grandson of Louis Napoleon Parker, made a profit of £1850. However, an even larger pageant to commemorate the Coronation of Elizabeth II at Warwick Castle in 1953 (also by Anthony Parker) made a loss of £6349 and was the last major pageant held in the county.27 After 20 or so years, the great Edwardian pageants had already become legendary, yet few pageants of the subsequent years could match them for their scale and profitability, let alone for their hubris and self-assurance.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Leamington Spa Courier, 14 November 1930, 1.
  2. ^ This is an error: Henry de Newburgh [i.e. Henry de Beaumont] was the first earl of Warwick. Roger de Newburgh [de Beaumont], Henry’s brother, was in fact earl of Leicester. See David Crouch, ‘Beaumont, Robert de, count of Meulan and first earl of Leicester (d. 1118)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), and David Crouch, ‘Beaumont , Henry de, first earl of Warwick (d. 1119)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004).
  3. ^ Leicester appears accompanied by ‘Lady Leicester’, but in 1575 Lord Leicester was unmarried.
  4. ^ Tamworth Herald, 25 Jan. 1930, 7.
  5. ^ Tamworth Herald, 25 Jan. 1930, 7.
  6. ^ Deborah Sugg Ryan, ‘Lally, Gwen (1882–1963)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  7. ^ Leamington Spa Courier, 28 February 1930, 8.
  8. ^ Leamington Spa Courier, 11 April 1930, 5.
  9. ^ Ibid.
  10. ^ Eric Salmon, ‘Drinkwater, John (1882–1937),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  11. ^ With the exception of Nuneaton, interwar Warwickshire was a Conservative stronghold.
  12. ^ Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 19 July 1930, p. 8. In Woolf’s novel, the pageant is interrupted by the noise of twelve aeroplanes flying overhead, an incident which prompts one audience member to ask, ‘what’s the channel, come to think of it, if they mean to invade us?’. See Gillian Beer, ‘The and the Aeroplane: The Case of Virgina Woolf’, in H.K. Bhabha, ed., Nation and Narration (London, 1990), 273, 286-7, and also Beer, ‘Discourses of the Island’, in F. Amrine, ed., Literature and Science as Modes of Expression (Dordrecht, 1989), 1-28.
  13. ^ Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 19 July 1930, 8
  14. ^ Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 19 July 1930, 8
  15. ^ Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 19 July 1930, 8; Nottingham Evening Post, 30 June 1930, 4; Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 16 July 1930, 3
  16. ^ H.J.H., ‘A Pageant by Radio’, Manchester Guardian, 17 July 1930, 12.
  17. ^ The Times, 17 July 1930, 12.
  18. ^ Ibid.
  19. ^ Ibid.
  20. ^ Brisbane Courier, 4 November 1930, 15, accessed 29 April 2016, http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/21600780.
  21. ^ Ibid.
  22. ^ ‘A Commentary on The Pageant of Warwickshire’, BBC Regional Programme Midland, 16 July 1930, accessed 29 April 2016, http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/af1967e402d14032837021e4d6bbcb64.
  23. ^ H.J.H., ‘A Pageant by Radio’, Manchester Guardian, 17 July 1930, 12.
  24. ^ Ibid.
  25. ^ Ibid.
  26. ^ Leamington Spa Courier, 14 November 1930, 1.
  27. ^ Banbury Guardian, 25 February 1954, 2.

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘The Spirit of Warwickshire’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1202/