Kettering Pageant

Pageant type

Jump to Summary

Performances

Place: Kettering (Kettering) (Kettering, Northamptonshire, England)

Year: 1951

Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors

Number of performances: n/a

Notes

June 1951

Name of pageant master and other named staff

Notes

  • Narrators: Myra Cross and Ernest Phillips

Names of executive committee or equivalent

n/a

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

  • Drever, Mrs O.P.

Names of composers

n/a

Numbers of performers

n/a

Financial information

n/a

Object of any funds raised

n/a

Linked occasion

Festival of Britain

Audience information

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

n/a

Associated events

n/a

Pageant outline

Episode I. Visit of Elizabeth I

Episode II. The Founding of the Workhouse

Episode III. The Grammar School in the days of William Pitt

Episode IV. The opening of the library by Andrew Carnegie

Episode V. Representatives of the Town Down the Ages

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Elizabeth I (1533–1603) queen of England and Ireland
  • Carnegie, Andrew (1835–1919) steelmaker and philanthropist

Musical production

n/a

Newspaper coverage of pageant

Northampton Mercury

Book of words

n/a

Other primary published materials

n/a

References in secondary literature

n/a

Archival holdings connected to pageant

n/a

Sources used in preparation of pageant

n/a

Summary

The Kettering Pageant was one of hundreds held to commemorate the Festival of Britain. Other Pageants in Northamptonshire included Rushden and Wollaston. The Pageant, which was deemed by the Northamptonshire Mercury to be ‘enjoyable entertainment’, suffered a protracted argument about whether or not the Mayor should appear. Whilst Councillor C.E. Goode, the Mayor, was willing to do so, the Council had refused ‘on the grounds that it would not be in keeping with the dignity of the Mayor’s position’.1 A compromise was ultimately reached, whereby the Mayor would appear in ceremonial robes but would not speak.

Footnotes

1. ^ Northampton Mercury, 15 June 1951, 10.

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Kettering Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1361/