Kettering Pageant
Pageant type
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/