A Church, A Town; Illuminated Pageant of Dartford and its Parish Church

Pageant type

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Performances

Place: Holy Trinity Church (Dartford) (Dartford, Kent, England)

Year: 1970

Indoors/outdoors: Indoors

Number of performances: 4

Notes

14–17 April 1970

[Performances were held in the evening.]

Name of pageant master and other named staff

Names of executive committee or equivalent

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

  • Porteus, G.H.
  • Shakespeare, William

Notes

The pageant included excerpts from Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Names of composers

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Numbers of performers

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Financial information

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Object of any funds raised

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Linked occasion

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Audience information

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

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Associated events

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Pageant outline

Episode 1

The Celtic Church and the arrival of Paulinus in London, the growth of Canterbury as a religious power. 

Episode 2

The Church under William the Conqueror

Episode 3

Thomas Becket—‘Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?’ Ralph of Dartford, master mason at Westminster Abbey, and his memories of building the chapel at St. Thomas’. The episode also discusses the great floods of 1866 which came 3 feet up the church walls, and shoots forward in time to cover the even greater flood of 1968.

Episode 4

Christmas in Dartford, listing various gifts and benefactions provided by wealthy citizens,

Episode 5

The Puritan era and the Civil War in Dartford, during which the vestry was used as a powder magazine and armoury. The building of the organ in 1793, and its replacement in 1850 at great expense borne by the parishioners. The latest organ installed in 1913.

Episode 6

Cardinal Wolsey’s visit to Dartford in 1527 riding into town on a mule.

Episode 7

Remembrance of the dead from the Hundred Years’ War, the Wars of the Roses, the Civil War, the War of Spanish Succession, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the First World War and the Second World War, during which Dartford was bombed. An account of the bombing and a list of some of those who died. The execution of Christopher Waid for heresy in 1555.

Episode 8

The Reformation

Episode 9

Hamo de Hethe, Bishop of Rochester’s renovations of the church after 1333.

Episode 10

The building of the Chantry by Thomas Sampit in 1338.

Episode 11

The Prologue from the Canterbury Tales.

The marriage of Lady Isabella, daughter of King John in 1235. The marriage is done by proxy, before taking her to her husband, the Emperor at Worms. The Archbishop of Cologne performs a ceremony in Latin.

Episode 12

The various bells. The story of William De ’Ath. The death of William Trevithick, who died in Dartford a pauper in 1833.

Episode 13

Thomas de Secheford, the vicar who was involved in the Peasants’ Revolt.

Episode 14

Thomas Havercroft, a young friend of Henry V

Episode 15

A local wood carver

Episode 16

Randall Thomas Davidson who was a curate at the church before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury.

Episode 17

John Sodeman, the hermit of the chapel in the sixteenth century.

Episode 18

John Spilman, the German jeweller to Elizabeth I, and the first paper-mill in England set up in 1585.

Episode 19

The Patronal festival, a baptism and the font which was only 150 years old.

Episode 20

The founding of the Priory of Saints Mary and Margaret in 1372.

Episode 21

In 1490 Princess Bridget, youngest daughter of Edward IV, was brought to the Priory on the King’s orders.

Episode 22

Lines from Shakespeare’s Henry V [featuring the voice of Laurence Olivier], the procession of Henry V’s corpse and his retinue with Queen Katherine [Catherine] from Dover to London.

Epilogue

The hermit muses on the meaning of the church, its assistance to the poor, and its work as a patron of the arts and education.

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Paulinus [St Paulinus] (d. 644) bishop of York and of Rochester
  • Becket, Thomas [St Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London] (1120?–1170) archbishop of Canterbury
  • Wolsey, Thomas (1470/71–1530) royal minister, archbishop of York, and cardinal
  • Hythe [Hethe], Hamo (b. c.1270, d. in or after 1357) bishop of Rochester
  • John (1167–1216) king of England, and lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and of Aquitaine, and count of Anjou
  • Isabella [Elizabeth, Isabella of England] (1214–1241) empress, consort of Frederick II
  • Davidson, Randall Thomas, Baron Davidson of Lambeth (1848–1930) archbishop of Canterbury
  • Henry V (1386–1422) king of England and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine
  • Catherine [Catherine of Valois] (1401–1437) queen of England, consort of Henry V

Musical production

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Newspaper coverage of pageant

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Book of words

Porteus, G.H. A Church, A Town: Text for an lluminated Pageant of Dartford and its Parish Church. Dartford, 1970.

Other primary published materials

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References in secondary literature

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Archival holdings connected to pageant

  • Copy of Book of Words in Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone, Reference K/Dartford POR

Sources used in preparation of pageant

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Summary

The Pageant repeated one held three years earlier with a number of additional or edited scenes, such as one featuring the 1968 Flood. Dartford had previously held pageants in 1932 and 1951.

Footnotes

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘A Church, A Town; Illuminated Pageant of Dartford and its Parish Church’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1396/