Northamptonshire Women’s Institutes’ Fete and Pageant
Pageant type
Performances
Place: Delapre Park (Northampton) (Northampton, Northamptonshire, England)
Year: 1948
Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors
Number of performances: 3
Notes
3 July 1948 at 2.30, 4.30 and 6.30pm
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Producer [Pageant Master]: Bell, Peter
- Producer and Narrator: Dilys Bailey
- Stage Manager: Mary Honer
- Assistant Stage Manager: Mrs Spencer
- Wardrobe Mistress: Dora Parr
- Make-up: Lady Earle
- Episode Producers: Mrs Titmann, Miss
M.F. Jones, Jean Common, F. Penn, Rebecca Ayres, I. Green, Dora Parr, Mrs S.C.
Edwards, K.A. Leatherhead, Mrs McLellan
Names of executive committee or equivalent
n/a
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Summerhayes, Prudence
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
260Financial information
The Pageant and Fete together raised £556 3s 3d (Northampton Mercury, 3 September 1948, 1).
Object of any funds raised
The Women’s Institute
Notes
It is unclear as to whether funds benefitted the local county or national organisation.
Linked occasion
n/a
Audience information
- Grandstand: Yes
- Grandstand capacity: n/a
- Total audience: n/a
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
The Pageant was part of a Fete, including Young Farmers’ demonstrations of sheep-shearing and thatching and demonstrations by the Ministry of Food
Pageant outline
Queen Eleanor’s Funeral Procession (Oundle WI)
The Legend of Stowe-Nine-Churches (Castle Ashby WI)
The Battle of Northampton (Billing WI)
The Story of Elizabeth Woodville (Flore WI)
The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots at Fortheringay (Brackley WI)
The Scold (Gayton WI)
The Bread Riot of 1795 (Earls Barton WI)
The Three Witches of Guilsborough (Guilsborough WI)
Modern Episode (Duston WI)
Key historical figures mentioned
- Eleanor [Eleanor of Castile] (1241–1290)
queen of England, consort of Edward I
- Elizabeth [née Elizabeth Woodville]
(c.1437–1492) queen of England, consort of Edward IV
- Mary [Mary Stewart] (1542–1587) queen
of Scots
Musical production
Northamptonshire songs and dances were performed by Cogenhoe Institute and Wootton Folk Society
Newspaper coverage of pageant
Northampton
Mercury
Buckingham
Advertiser and Free Press
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
Women’s Institute Pageants, often organised at a county level, were highly popular during the 1920s and early 1930s. The WI already possessed many of the organisational skills which made for successful pageantry, on top of expertise in costume-making and catering. Northamptonshire had previously celebrated a Women’s Institute Pageant at Harlestone House in 1930. Though there were certainly far fewer WI pageants after the Second World War, which tended to be on a smaller scale, a number were held (for example Leek Wooton and Blenheim 1951), of which the Northamptonshire Women’s Institute Pageant was a major instance.
Though the plans were laid out in February 1948, the geographical constraints imposed by disparate Women’s Institute local branches meant that there was only one full rehearsal of all the performers, with individual scenes rehearsed by each branch.1 The Pageant was attended by the patron of the WI, HRH the Duchess of Gloucester, which garnered significant local press coverage. Despite the lack of rehearsal, the Northampton Mercury was glowing in its review of the performance, noting that the ‘setting was beautiful and impressive and full use was made of its spaciousness’, and that ‘the pageant itself was full of action and well-knit and the performers must have gone back to their villages well satisfied with their own particular contribution and with the pageant as a whole.’2
The Pageant and Fete was a great success, at a time of austerity when many pageants made losses, raising £556 3s 3d for the WI, attesting to the organizational skills of the Institute as well as a growing desire for women's history.3
Footnotes
1. ^ Northampton Mercury, 6 Feb. 1948, 7; Northampton Mercury, 9 July 1948, 5.
2. ^ Northampton Mercury, 9 July 1948, 5.
3. ^ Northampton Mercury, 3 Sept. 1948, 1.
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Northamptonshire Women’s Institutes’ Fete and Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1416/