This Precious Stone: A Pageant Play of Guildford

Pageant type

Notes

Performed by the Guildford Youth Committee

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Performances

Place: Technical College hall, Stoke Park (Guildford) (Guildford, Surrey, England)

Year: 1944

Indoors/outdoors: Indoors

Number of performances: 5

Notes

23–27 May 1944

Name of pageant master and other named staff

  • Director [Pageant Master]: Thorndike, Eileen
  • Assistant Director: Frances Paton-Hood
  • Musical Director: M.S. Chesterfield
  • Stage Manager: J. Thomas
  • Properties: R. Cross
  • Lighting: Mark White and J. Martin
  • Executive Officer: F.S. Tosswill
  • Organiser: Thomas O. Pope

Notes



Names of executive committee or equivalent

n/a

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

  • Codd, Leslie
  • Ligett, M.D.
  • Nicklin, C.E.

Notes


Names of composers

n/a

Numbers of performers

n/a

Financial information

Object of any funds raised

n/a

Linked occasion

n/a

Audience information

  • Grandstand: Not Known
  • Grandstand capacity: n/a
  • Total audience: n/a

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

n/a

Associated events

n/a

Pageant outline

Act One: A Room in A Large House in Guildford, 1944

Act Two: Royal Manor, Guildford Park, 1489

Act Three: A Meadow in Guildford, 1569

Act Four

Scene One: St Nicholas Parish, Guildford, 1574

Scene Two: Abbot’s Hospital, Guildford, 1627

Act Five: The Guildhall, Guildford, 1660

Act Six: The Red Lion, Guildford, 1668

Act Seven: Angel Inn, Guildford, April 1740.

Act Eight: Alice in Wonderland, scene is the Court of the King of Hearts

Act Nine: The Present Mayor and Corporation of Guildford

Act Ten: Grand Finale. Spirit of Guildford and March-Past

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Henry III (1207–1272) king of England and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine
  • Edward III (1312–1377) king of England and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine
  • Henry VII (1457–1509) king of England and lord of Ireland
  • Elizabeth [née Elizabeth Woodville] (c.1437–1492) queen of England, consort of Edward IV
  • Elizabeth I (1533–1603) queen of England and Ireland
  • Charles II (1630–1685) king of England, Scotland, and Ireland

Musical production

Performed pieces included Edward Carpenter, ‘England Arise’

Newspaper coverage of pageant

Surrey Advertiser

Book of words

n/a

Other primary published materials

n/a

Guildford Youth Committee presents This Precious Stone: A Pageant Play of Guildford. Guildford, 1944. [price 3d]

References in secondary literature

n/a

Archival holdings connected to pageant

  • This Precious Stone Memorabilia Album, Reference 5211/1

    Surrey History Centre, Woking

  • Correspondence between the author Leslie Codd and Miss Liggett, Guildford Chief Librarian and others, Reference 5428/1/

    Surrey History Centre, Woking

  • Typescript, Reference 5428/1/1/15-69

    Surrey History Centre, Woking

Sources used in preparation of pageant

  • Blackstone, William, The Great Charter. London, 1759.
  • Pepys, Samuel, Diary. London, 1660
  • Russell, G.W. and J., ‘A Descriptive and Historical View of Guildford’, 1845

Summary

This pageant was put on by the Guildford Youth Committee. A film of the pageant was made, but the editing took a great deal of time. It was finally shown at the Gaumont British Cinema, Wardour Street on 27 March 1946 at 11am.1

Footnotes

  1. ^ Surrey History Centre, Woking, Reference 5428/1/1-2 [?]

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘This Precious Stone: A Pageant Play of Guildford’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1325/