Naworth Castle Pageant
Other names
- The Tudor Pageant
Pageant type
Notes
Institutional (Rolls Royce and Spadeadam site); small town (Brampton).
Performances
Place: Courtyard of Naworth Castle (Brampton) (Brampton, Cumberland, England)
Year: 1960
Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors
Number of performances: 2
Notes
16 July 1960, 3.50pm and 5pm
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Producer [Pageant Master]: Jones, Albert
Names of executive committee or equivalent
n/a
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Dodds, Derek
- Woodward, John
Notes
Both were established writers associated with the International Writers Guild.
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
140Principal parts taken by the local Brampton Players, with other locals, and Spadeadam employees, taking crowd scenes. Horses.
Financial information
‘Nearly £400 raised’.1
Object of any funds raised
Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness Spastics Society
Linked occasion
n/a
Audience information
- Grandstand: Not Known
- Grandstand capacity: n/a
- Total audience: 800
Notes
More than 800 saw the pageant.
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
- Stalls; displays of archery; ice cream and lemonade; tea; wrestling.
- Prize for prettiest grandmother.
- Special entertainments provided by Mr and Mrs B. Weston, who gave a display of fencing; the Eden Company of Archers; the Pat Allen School of Dancing; and tumblers from the Irthing Valley School.
Pageant outline
Key historical figures mentioned
- Anne [Anne Boleyn] (c.1500–1536) queen of England, second consort of Henry VIII
- Katherine [Catalina, Catherine, Katherine of Aragon] (1485–1536) queen of England, first consort of Henry VIII
- Henry VIII (1491–1547) king of England and Ireland
- Wolsey, Thomas (1470/71–1530) royal minister, archbishop of York, and cardinal
Musical production
Stanwix St Ann’s Pipe Band.
‘Greensleeves’.
Newspaper coverage of pageant
Derby Evening TelegraphCarlisle Journal
Cumberland Evening News
Book of words
n/a
Other primary published materials
n/a
References in secondary literature
n/a
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- At Derbyshire Record Office3:
- Newspaper cuttings concerning pageant held at Naworth Castle, organised by Spadeadam employees. D5496/2/1.
- Four black and white photographs of the pageant at Naworth Castle. D5496/2/2.
- Article about the Spadeadam project (with anecdotes) written by Derek Dodds. D5496/5.
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
The Naworth Castle Pageant was a small event that took place in 1960. It was really more of a fete and short play than a ‘true’ historical pageant. The focus was solely on the Tudor period and Henry VIII—with his wives, of course. Its interest today lies not so much in the narrative of the play (of which very few details remain), but more in what it can tell us about a small but interesting experiment in the forming of a new community, against the backdrop of Cold War secrecy.
The pageant was written by Derek Dodds and John Woodward, colleagues at Rolls-Royce who had also collaborated on six other plays. Both had experience in the International Writers’ Guild, of which Woodward was Vice President.4 Both men had also, only recently, moved to the area. Rolls-Royce had been employed, by the Ministry of Aviation in 1957, to manage the new site of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Test Centre, based at what was then known as Spadeadam Waste in Cumberland. A shroud of secrecy enveloped the centre—the site’s role in Britain’s Cold War nuclear weapons programme was not made public until 2004, when tree-felling uncovered the remains of abandoned excavations for a missile silo. Local people in the late 1950s were obviously intrigued about what was happening at Spadeadam. Dodds remembered how
One entrepreneur chartered ‘bus trips to take sightseers along the main Carlisle/Newcastle Road where he stopped, at a layby virtually opposite the Engine test stands. He also provided binoculars for his passengers but they had to take pot-luck at seeing an engine-firing. He was, of course, stopped and the Official Secrets Act duly read to him!5
Dodds and Woodward were commissioned by Lady Constance Howard, on behalf of the Earl and Countess of Carlisle, to write the pageant as part of a fundraising event for the Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness Spastic Society. Howard, remembered Dodds, had invited the author, along with another colleague, to her ‘cottage’ to find out more about, as he put it, ‘these strange people coming to live and work in the County and so manifestly different than traditional farm workers and tradespeople’.6 Howard was very actively locally, and sought to enlist these newcomers in the purpose of both raising money and building community relations. The pageant itself, then, was an exercise in community spirit—both from the people of Brampton and the surrounding area, and the Rolls-Royce newcomers. 140 volunteers performed scenes from the days of the Tudors and King Henry VIII, with typical incidents such as country fayres, men in stocks, and the conflict with Thomas Wolsey. In addition the pageant grounds had stalls and entertainments, including archery and a prize for the ‘prettiest grandmother’.7
Alderman K. Payne, the Chairman of the Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness Spastic Society, opened the pageant by talking about the society’s aims since its formation in 1954. Lady Constance Howard, Countess of Lonsdale, then used her speech as an opportunity to ruminate on the nature of charity and welfare in post-war Britain. She drew attention to how, even then, when so much work of the Welfare State was done on a national level, there was still ‘much to be done locally which could only be achieved by voluntary societies.’8
W. Ridley, the Chairman of the Brampton Parish Council, then thanked all who had helped with the pageant—‘especially those from Spadeadam who had worked with the local people.’9 The pageant, though making a small profit, was undeniably small. Only two performances, on the same day, were staged, with around 800 seeing the pageant. However, as Dodds recalled, the pageant was still a ‘huge success’ and ‘did much to further the reputation of the people at Spadeadam’.10 It serves as an example of how historical pageantry could bring different people together—as much about the present it took place in, as the past that was performed.
Footnotes
- ^ ‘Reliving the Tudor Period’, Derby Evening Telegraph, 26 July 1960, 3, loose cutting in newspaper cuttings concerning pageant held at Naworth Castle, organised by Spadeadam employees, Derbyshire Record Office. D5496/2/1.
- ^ ‘Reliving the Tudor Period’, Derby Evening Telegraph, 26 July 1960, 3, loose cutting in newspaper cuttings concerning pageant held at Naworth Castle, organised by Spadeadam employees, Derbyshire Record Office. D5496/2/1 and ‘Naworth Pageant Plans’, The Carlisle Journal, 8 July. Loose cuttings in newspaper cuttings concerning pageant held at Naworth Castle, organised by Spadeadam employees, Derbyshire Record Office. D5496/2/1.
- ^ These records are held at the Derbyshire Record Office because Spadeadam was part of Rolls Royce, based in Derby.
- ^ ‘Reliving the Tudor Period’, Derby Evening Telegraph, 26 July 1960, 3, loose cutting in newspaper cuttings concerning pageant held at Naworth Castle, organised by Spadeadam employees, Derbyshire Record Office. D5496/2/1.
- ^ Article about the Spadeadam project (with anecdotes) written by Derek Dodds, Derbyshire Record Office. D5496/5.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ ‘Tudor Days Recalled at Naworth Castle’, The Carlisle Journal, 19 July 1960, 1 and 8; ‘Naworth Pageant Plans’, The Carlisle Journal, 8 July. Loose cuttings in newspaper cuttings concerning pageant held at Naworth Castle, organised by Spadeadam employees, Derbyshire Record Office. D5496/2/1.
- ^ ‘Tudor Days Recalled at Naworth Castle’, 1 and 8.
- ^ Ibid., 1 and 8.
- ^ Article about the Spadeadam project (with anecdotes) written by Derek Dodds.
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Naworth Castle Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1134/