A Pageant of Ditchling
Pageant type
Performances
Place: Lodge Hill (Ditchling) (Ditchling, Sussex, England)
Year: 1961
Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors
Number of performances: 4
Notes
15–18 June 1961
15–17 June at 7.45pm; 18 June at 3.15pm
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Producer [Pageant Master]: Greenwood,
Margaret
- Producer: Jean Ellis
- Costume Designer: Grace Denman
- Mime Devised by: Doris Gayer
Names of executive committee or equivalent
n/a
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Crookshank, Rev. A.C.
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
n/a
Financial information
n/a
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
n/a
Audience information
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
n/a
Pageant outline
Scene I. 898.
King Alfred and his cousin Osferth visit the Royal Manor at Ditchling; Alfred orders the building of a church.
Scene II. 1240.
The enlarged church and the Cluniac Priory is visited by the Abbot.
Scene III. 1311.
Edward II meets John, Earl de Warenne and Piers Gaveston at Ditchling. The king grants the village the St Margaret’s-tide Fair.
Scene IV. 1576.
Henry Poole and his family arrive to take up residence in Wings Place.
Scene V. 1643.
The duel—fought by means of pamphlets—between Mascal Giles [Gyles], the puritan vicar of Ditchling and Thomas Barton, the royalist Rector of Westmeston.
Scene VI. 1661.
Rejoicings following the restoration of Charles II.
Key historical figures mentioned
- Alfred [Ælfred] (848/9–899) king of
the West Saxons and of the Anglo-Saxons [also known as Aelfred, the Great]
- Edward II [Edward of Caernarfon]
(1284–1327) king of England and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine
- Warenne, John de, seventh earl of Surrey
[earl of Surrey and Sussex, Earl Warenne] (1286–1347) magnate
- Gaveston, Piers, earl of Cornwall (d.
1312) royal favourite
- Gyles, Mascal (1595/6–1652) Church of
England clergyman and writer
- Barton, Thomas (1599/1600–1682) Church
of England clergyman
Musical production
n/a
Newspaper coverage of pageant
n/a
Book of words
- None known
Other primary published materials
- A Pageant of Ditchling. Hove, 1961. [Price 1s].
References in secondary literature
- ‘A Short History of the Players’, Ditchling Players, accessed 29 July 2016, http://www.ditchlingplayers.co.uk/ashorthistoryoft.html
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- Copy of Programme in the British Library
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
The Pageant was put on by the Ditchling Players, a dramatic group that had been founded in 1923. The Players’ first pageant was staged in 1950, with a further being held during the Festival of Britain year in 1951. This pageant was then repeated every ten years, in 1961, 1971 and 1981. The script used for these three pageants was the same as that used in the 1951 performance. It was written by the Rev. A.C. Crookshank, who died in 1958.1 Prominent members of the players include Martha Kearney, who became a BBC correspondent.2
Footnotes
1. ^ ‘The Rev. A.C. Crookshank’, Times, 11 March 1958, 13.
2. ^ ‘A Short History of the Players’, Ditchlingg Players, accessed 29 July 2016, http://www.ditchlingplayers.co.uk/ashorthistoryoft.html
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘A Pageant of Ditchling’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1423/