Burnham-on-Sea Pageant
Pageant type
Performances
Place: Town Hall (Burnham-on-Sea) (Burnham-On-Sea, Somerset, England)
Year: 1932
Indoors/outdoors: Indoors
Number of performances: 1
Notes
13 June 1932
[The performance was held in the evening.]
Name of pageant master and other named staff
Notes
- Organisers: Lady Fox, John Bright Clark,
Miss Fleetwood, Miss Lax
- Music Arranged by: Arthur Trowbridge
- Organist: Noel H. Bell
Names of executive committee or equivalent
n/a
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Clark, Theodore
Notes
Clark wrote the prologue.
Names of composers
n/a
Numbers of performers
Presented by the Polden Hills Group of Women’s Institutes
Financial information
n/a
Object of any funds raised
n/a
Linked occasion
n/a
Audience information
- Grandstand: No
- Grandstand capacity: n/a
- Total audience: n/a
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
n/a
Associated events
n/a
Pageant outline
King Alfred and the burnt cakes
Presented by Edington Group.
Alfred disguised as a minister at the Danish camp
Presented by Mark Group.
Edward I and Eleanor at Glastonbury
Presented by Meare Group.
Queen Elizabeth and a deputation of Washerwomen
Presented by Brent Knoll Group.
King Monmouth at Taunton Presented with Gifts by Maids
Presented by Compton Dando Group.
Monmouth Cures the King’s Evil
Presented by Ashcott and Shapwick Groups.
Monmouth before Sedgemoor
Presented by Walton Groups.
Key historical figures mentioned
- Alfred [Ælfred] (848/9–899) king of
the West Saxons and of the Anglo-Saxons [also known as Aelfred, the Great]
- Edward I (1239–1307) king of England
and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine
- Eleanor [Eleanor of Castile] (1241–1290)
queen of England, consort of Edward I
- Elizabeth I (1533–1603) queen of
England and Ireland
- Scott [formerly Crofts], James, duke of
Monmouth and first duke of Buccleuch (1649–1685) politician
Musical production
Noel H. Bell performed organ works for folk dances and folk songs.
Newspaper coverage of pageant
Wells
Journal
Shepton
Mallet Journal
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 Institutes Pageants were extremely popular during the interwar period. This is one of the smaller ones, of which the Wells Journal remarked that ‘The work of the Women’s Institutes was shown by the fine pageantry to have been in very competent hands.’1 Like many Women’s Institute pageants, each episode was organized and performed by a different local branch (or branches) of the WI. The pageant focused on two national heroes who were especially popular in the West Country: King Alfred and the Duke of Monmouth, who occupied three scenes. Other pageants such as Bridgwater (1927), also presented Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II, curing the King’s evil: an affliction was popularly believed during this period could be cured by the Monarch’s touch, suggesting that the Duke of Monmouth could claim Royal rights.
Footnotes
1. ^ Wells Journal, 19 June 1931, 2.
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Burnham-on-Sea Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1511/