‘Wayfarers’: A Children’s Pageant of Local History

Pageant type

Notes

Performed by children of Bassingbourn County School

Jump to Summary

Performances

Place: The Bowling Alley (Bassingbourn) (Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, England)

Year: 1953

Indoors/outdoors: Indoors

Number of performances: 4

Notes

23 July 1953, at 3pm and 7pm

Name of pageant master and other named staff

  • Pageant Master: Harcourt, A.J.

Names of executive committee or equivalent

n/a

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

Names of composers

n/a

Numbers of performers

142

Financial information

n/a

Object of any funds raised

n/a

Linked occasion

Coronation of Elizabeth II

Audience information

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

n/a

Associated events

n/a

Pageant outline

Prologue. The Roadmender

Episode 1. Ancient Britons cross the scene, 1200 BC

Episode 2. Roman Lady Returns to her villa, 200 AD

Episode 3. Basa and his family found Bassingbourn, 600

Episode 4. King Harold passes along Ermine Street, 1066

Interlude: Summer is icumen in

Episode 5. Peasants revolt at Morden, 1381

Episode 6. Pilgrim, soldier, monk, messenger and pedlar, 1450

Episode 7. Morality play at Bassingbourn, 1511

Episode 8. Visitors at Bassingbourn Fair, 1580

Interlude: A Psalm

Episode 9. Sir William Dowsing at the Church, 1643

Interlude: The Countryman’s Song

Episode 10. Footpads attack a coach, 1750

Episode 11. Rustic family and a train, 1851

Episode 12. Gentleman teaches lady to cycle, 1895

Episode 13. The Ford Car, 1912

Episode 14. Hitch Hikers, 1953

Interlude: An Airman’s Ecstasy

Tableau of School Children

Epilogue, The Roadmender

God Save the Queen

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Harold I [called Harold Harefoot] (d. 1040) king of England
  • Dowsing, William (bap. 1596, d. 1668) iconoclast

Musical production

Music performed by Bassingbourn Choral Society and Instrumentalists

Newspaper coverage of pageant

n/a

Book of words

None noted

Other primary published materials

  • ‘Wayfarers’: A Children’s Pageant of Local History. Foxton, 1953. [Price 1s.]

References in secondary literature

n/a

Archival holdings connected to pageant

  • Copy of Programme in Cambridgeshire Local Studies Collection, Cambridge, Reference c.44.3

Sources used in preparation of pageant

n/a

Summary

Children’s pageants were held throughout the twentieth century. They were often organized by a local school or schools, as in this example(see also the nearby Elsworth School Pageant (1975)). It is unclear whether or not this pageant was associated with the coronation of 1953, but it seems likely. The focus of the narrative was on the local history of Bassingbourn from the time of the ancient Britons to the present day. One interesting feature was the attention given to modern developments, and indeed modern technology—in particular in relation to modes of transport. Trains, planes and automobiles all feature, as does the very modern pastime of hitch-hiking, which is the focus of the final episode. 

Footnotes

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘‘Wayfarers’: A Children’s Pageant of Local History’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1482/