Pageant of Cirencester
Pageant type
Notes
Additional information drawn from 'Survey of Historical Pageants' undertaken by Mick Wallis; with thanks to Cirencester Bingham Library.
Performances
Place: Home Park (Cirencester) (Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England)
Year: 1953
Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors
Number of performances: 3
Notes
11–13 June 1953, at 9pm
[Performances were floodlit]
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Pageant Master: Crockett, John
- Stage Manager: F.J. McLellan
- Stage Manager (Sound): J. Honer
- Chief Electrician: A.J. Counter
- Wardrobe: R. Parr
Names of executive committee or equivalent
Pageant Committee
- Chairman: Viola Apsley
- Vice-Chairman: A. Saint
- Treasurer: E. Rolfe
- Joint Hon. Secretaries: P.R. Ramsay and
R. Chester-Master
Producers Advisory Sub-Committee
- Chairman: A. Saint
Costumes Sub-Committee
- Chairman: R. Parr
Publicity and Box Office Sub-Committee
- Chairman: P.H. Webb
Musical Sub-Committee
- Chairman: J. Honer
Technical Sub-Committee
- Chairman: Mr F. McLellan
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Aspley, Viola
- Crockett, John
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
n/a
Financial information
n/a
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
Coronation of Elizabeth II
Audience information
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
n/a
Pageant outline
Prologue. Queen Elizabeth I Arrives in Cirencester, 1592.
Part One.
Episode I. The Spirit of Arthur Speaks
Episode II. The Roman Occupation, AD 45
Episode III. St Augustine and his English Followers, AD 611.
Episode IV. The Danish Invaders. AD 877.
Episode V. The Royal Abbey of St Mary’s, Cirencester in Medieval Times, and the visit of Edward I AD 1235.
Episode VI. Cirencester Grammar School and its Famous Boys.
Interval.
A Maypole Dance and Mumming Play.
Part Two.
Episode VII.
- Parts a) to d) The Capture of Cirencester, AD 1643.
- Parts e) to f) The Return of Charles II, AD 1663.
Episode VIII.
- Part
a) The Visit of Daniel Defoe, AD 1700.
- Part
b) The Visit of Queen Anne, AD 1703.
Episode IX. John Wesley passes through Cirencester, AD 1743.
Episode X. A Highwayman on his way to be Hung. AD 1756.
Episode XI. Visit of King George III, AD 1788.
Episode XII. The Napoleonic War, AD 1800.
Episode XIII. The Third Earl of Bathurst meets with William Pitt and Arthur Wellesley, AD 1805.
Episode XIV. A Game of Cricket and a Poacher is Apprehended. AD 1850.
Episode XV. The Royal Agricultural Exhibition Welcomes the Prince of Wales. AD 1894.
God Save the Queen.
Key historical figures mentioned
- Elizabeth I (1533–1603) %%queen of
England and Ireland
- Arthur (supp. fl. in or before 6th
cent.) legendary warrior and supposed king of Britain [also known as
Artorius ?, King]
- Augustine [St Augustine] (d. 604) missionary
and archbishop of Canterbury
- Edward I (1239–1307) king of England
and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine
- Charles II (1630–1685) king of
England, Scotland, and Ireland
- Defoe, Daniel (1660?–1731) writer and
businessman
- Anne (1665–1714) queen of Great
Britain and Ireland
- Wesley [Westley], John (1703–1791) Church
of England clergyman and a founder of Methodism
- George III (1738–1820) king of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and king of Hanover
- Bathurst, Henry, third Earl Bathurst
(1762–1834) politician
- Pitt, William [known as Pitt the
younger] (1759–1806) prime minister
- Wellesley [formerly Wesley], Arthur,
first duke of Wellington (1769–1852) army officer and prime minister
- Edward VI (1537–1553) king of England
and Ireland
Musical production
n/a
Newspaper coverage of pageant
n/a
Book of words
- None known
Other primary published materials
- Floodlit Pageant of Cirencester: Souvenir Programme. Cirencester, 1953. [Price 1s.]
References in secondary literature
n/a
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- British Library: Copy of the Programme.
Cirencester Bingham Library holds an annotated copy of the pageant script.
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
The Pageant of Cirencester was one of a number of Pageants held for the Coronation in 1953 (see St Albans, Sandy, and Warwickshire). A number of postwar pageants utilized floodlighting, allowing performances to begin later in the evenings to attract more spectators returning from work, as well as affording performers the opportunity of not taking substantial holidays to perform in pageants.
Cirencester Bingham Library holds a copy of the script that has been annotated by Marjorie Klitz, who played the part of Narrator in the pageant.
Footnotes
The 1953 Coronation occasioned numerous historical pageants. This example, staged over three days at Cirencester, is notable for the use it made of floodlighting. The aim, evidently, was to create a dramatic spectacle. It seems to have been a fairly elaborate undertaking, with fifteen episodes (one of them of six parts). The link between Elizabeth II and her sixteenth-century namesake are foregrounded, the pageant—which is otherwise arranged chronologically—opening with a scene depicting the visit of good Queen Bess to Cirencester in 1592. There followed a wide-ranging treatment of the history of the town, much being made of its connection with events and figures of national importance—from the invasion of the Danes to the Civil War, Restoration and conflict with Napoleonic France.
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Pageant of Cirencester’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1484/