Halifax Piece Hall Pageant
Pageant type
Performances
Place: Shibden Park (Halifax) (Halifax, Yorkshire, West Riding, England)
Year: 1976
Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors
Number of performances: 1
Notes
22 May 1976
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Co-ordinator [Pageant Master]: Gascoigne, John
Names of executive committee or equivalent
n/a
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Bentley, Phyllis
- Collins, Barry
- Myfield, Ian
- Parfitt, Richard
Notes
Phyllis Bentley was a prominent local writer who had written scenes for the 1931 Bradford Historical Pageant.
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
n/a
Financial information
The Pageant cost around £1400 and was not expected to make a profit
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
Audience information
- Grandstand: Not Known
- Grandstand capacity: n/a
- Total audience: n/a
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
Events associated with the pageant Included a balloon ascent, church bell ringing, brass bands, floats and banners, heavy horses, carnival steel bands, folk dancers and a fireworks display.
Pageant outline
Key historical figures mentioned
n/a
Musical production
Newspaper coverage of pageant
Halifax Evening Courier
Book of words
n/a
Other primary published materials
n/a
References in secondary literature
n/a
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- Correspondence, newspaper cuttings and flyer in papers of Phyllis Bentley, West Yorkshire Archive Services, Calderdale, PBB/B/72.
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
This pageant, held on 22 May 1976, was intended to commemorate the reopening of the Halifax Piece Hall, a large open-air cloth market built in 1779, after a major renovation. In the event, the new Piece Hall was not officially reopened until 3 July, later than expected. This meant the pageant was not staged on the site of the hall, as originally planned, but was instead performed in nearby Shibden Park. The pageant consisted of a series of scenes depicting the forging and development of Halifax and the wider community of Calderdale, of which the town was a part; it was performed by groups of local schoolchildren in an open-fronted marquee.
Footnotes
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Halifax Piece Hall Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1082/