Reigate Pageant
Pageant type
Performances
Place: Reigate Bus Depot (Reigate) (Reigate, Surrey, England)
Year: 1937
Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors
Number of performances: 3
Notes
13, 15 and 18 May 1937, at 8pm
[The final performance was added due to high demand]
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Hon Stage Manager [Pageant Master]:
Potter, Captain F.H.
- Scenery: Mr H. Barnes
- Hon. Secretary: Mr. H.J. Bernau
- Musical Director: Mrs Garfield Howe
Names of executive committee or equivalent
Pageant Committee
- Chairman: Mrs Spranger
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Kennedy Skipton, H.P.
Notes
H.P. Kennedy Skipton was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquities and the Royal Historical Society.
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
300Financial information
n/a
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
Coronation of King George VI
Audience information
- Grandstand: Not Known
- Grandstand capacity: n/a
- Total audience: n/a
Notes
The Pageant was well attended
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
3s 6d–1s 6d.
Associated events
n/a
Pageant outline
Britannia and the four Patron Saints
The Reigns of William I
Richard I
Edward I
Henry VIII
Queen Elizabeth
Charles II
Tableau of Vauxhall Gardens
Key historical figures mentioned
- Britannia (fl. 1st–21st cent.) allegory
of a nation, emblem of empire, and patriotic icon
- William I [known as William the
Conqueror] (1027/8–1087) king of England and duke of Normandy
- Richard I [called Richard Coeur de Lion,
Richard the Lionheart] (1157–1199) king of England, duke of Normandy and of
Aquitaine, and count of Anjou
- Edward I (1239–1307) king of England
and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine
- Henry VIII (1491–1547) king of
England and Ireland
- Elizabeth I (1533–1603) queen of
England and Ireland
- Charles II (1630–1685) king of
England, Scotland, and Ireland
Musical production
Reigate Town Silver band, a string orchestra and choir, conducted by Peter Anderson
Newspaper coverage of pageant
Surrey Mirror
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 town of Reigate was no stranger to pageants. It had previously held pageants in 1913, 1933, 1935, and had been planning a Pageant to celebrate the Coronation of George VI since December 1936.1 Their preferred location, the castle, was apparently not available so the Pageant was held, rather oddly, in the then-vacant Reigate Bus Depot. Despite the incongruous setting, the Pageant was a success, with large numbers attending the first and second performances, and indeed a third unscheduled showing was staged the following Tuesday to meet demand. The Surrey Mirror commended the Pageant and noted that ‘the tremendous ovations accorded the players, pageanteers and musicians spoke volumes for the appreciation entertained for their efforts, individual and massed.’2 The town revived its well-established tradition of pageants after the Second World War, holding events in 1951, 1953, 1956, 1959, and 1963.
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Reigate Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1420/