History of Yarm
Pageant type
Notes
The pageant was organized by the local branch of the Women’s Institute.
Performances
Place: Social Service Centre (Yarm) (Yarm, Yorkshire, North Riding, England)
Year: 1953
Indoors/outdoors: Indoors
Number of performances: 1
Notes
3 June 1953
Name of pageant master and other named staff
Notes
Under the auspices of Yarm Women’s Institute
Names of executive committee or equivalent
n/a
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
n/a
Financial information
n/a
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
The Coronation of Elizabeth II
Audience information
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
n/a
Pageant outline
Prologue. Spoken by Guy Davies
Link 1. The Salters
Scene I. Granting of Manorial Rights to Robert de Brus, 1089
Link 2. The Hospital of St. Nicholas c.1185
Scene II. The Charter 1207
Link 3. Leper, Woman and Child
Scene III. The Dominican Friars, c.1266
Link 4. Mediaeval characters
Scene IV. The Church Frescoes, c.1350
Link 5. Sumer is y-cumen in by the choir
Scene V. The Bridge, 1400
Link 6. The Recorder
Link 7. Pages and the Shipbuilder
Link 8. The Grammar School, 1590
Scene VI. Elizabethan Traders, 1580-90
Link 9. Madrigal by the Choir
Interval
Link 10. ‘Song of Yarm’ by the Choir
Scene VII. Battle for Yarm Bridge, 1643
Link 11. Tom Brown 1743
Scene VIII. John Wesley in Yarm, 1764
Link 12. Woman Spinning
Scene IX. The Flood, 1771
Link 13. Captain Stonehouse
Scene X. Railway Meeting, 1820
Link 14. Duke of Wellington’s visit, 1827
Link 15. Fine Knacks for Ladies
Scene XI. Victorian Market
Link 16. Dress Parade
Scene XII. The Fair, 1923
Link 17. Yarm Still Makes History
Link 18. The Epilogue, spoken by Guy Davies
Link 19. Queen Elizabeth I hands down heritage
Link 20. Long Live Elizabeth by the Choir
National Anthem
Key historical figures mentioned
- Wesley [Westley], John (1703–1791) Church
of England clergyman and a founder of Methodism
- Wellesley [formerly Wesley], Arthur,
first duke of Wellington (1769–1852) army officer and prime minister
- Elizabeth I (1533–1603) queen of
England and Ireland
Musical production
n/a
Newspaper coverage of pageant
n/a
Book of words
- None noted
Other primary published materials
- History of Yarm. Helmsley, 1953.
References in secondary literature
n/a
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- Copy of Programme in Mass Observation Archives, East Sussex Records Office, Reference SxMOA1/2/69/10/I
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
Many pageants were held in association with the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II; this is one example (see entries for Sandy and Warwickshire). It was staged by the Yarm branch of the Women’s Institute (an organization that had been actively involved in the pageant movement since the 1920s and 1930s and had put on a number of pageants for the Festival of Britain, see Blenheim (1951)). The pageant seems to have been quite elaborate, with many episodes—though these were likely quite short. Its focus was very much the history of Yarm, with—like other WI pageants—particular attention being played to the role and place of women in that history. The climax of the performance was a scene in which Elizabeth I ‘handed down heritage’ to her twentieth-century namesake. This chimed with the contemporary optimism about the dawn of a ‘new Elizabethan’ age. Similar connections between the two Elizabeths were made in other pageants held around the same time.
Footnotes
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘History of Yarm’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1454/