Waverley Abbey Pageant
Pageant type
Performances
Place: Grounds of the Abbey of St Mary at Waverley (Farnham) (Farnham, Surrey, England)
Year: 1978
Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors
Number of performances: 1
Notes
15 July at 2.30pm, 1978
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Pageant [Pageant Master]: Livermore, William
- Commemorative Sales: Ronnie Broughton
- Amplification: Richard Chilvers
- Music: David Dennis
- Commemorative Brochure and Publicity: Gordon Hartman
- Steward: George Hurdle
- Liturgical Adviser: Richard North
- Treasurer: Angus Smart
- Rev. Paul Jennings
- Rev. Nigel Nicholson
Names of executive committee or equivalent
n/a
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Livermore, William
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
The performers were school children.
Financial information
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
850th anniversary of the foundation and 700th anniversary of the dedication of the Abbey of St Mary at Waverley.
Audience information
- Grandstand: Not Known
- Grandstand capacity: n/a
- Total audience: n/a
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
There was a service in the Abbey.
Pageant outline
Prologue
Scene 1: The First Monks Arrive
Scene 2: The Monks and Lay-Brothers at Work, 12th and 13th Centuries
Scene 3: Visitors to Waverley Abbey, 12th, 13th and 14th Centuries
Scene 4: Violence at Waverley Abbey, about 1238
Soldiers burst in and arrest a shoemaker wrongly accused of murder, seeking sanctuary. The abbot appealed to the King, the man was returned to the abbey and the soldiers were arrested and flogged in the churchyard of Farnham Parish Church.
Scene 5: Previous Celebrations at Waverley Abbey in 1278 and 1928
Thanksgiving services in 1278 and 1928 are re-enacted.
Scene 6: The Present
Key historical figures mentioned
n/a
Musical production
Newspaper coverage of pageant
Book of words
n/a
Other primary published materials
n/a
Farnham Council of Churches: Programme for Pageant and Order of Service for 850th Anniversary of the Foundation and 700th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Abbey of St Mary at Waverley. Farnham, 1978.
References in secondary literature
- BBC Website, Domesday Reloaded, ‘Waverley Abbey’: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-484000-144000/page/18 (accessed 1 June 2016).
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- Copy of programme in Surrey History Centre, Woking, reference 7519/File 4, and newspaper cuttings, reference 7154/Box2.
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
This was a small-scale church pageant of the 1970s, performed by local schoolchildren. Its focus was solely on the history of Waverley Abbey.
Footnotes
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Waverley Abbey Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1236/