Marple War Memorial Park Historical Pageant

Pageant type

Notes

With thanks to Elizabeth Bainbridge.

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Performances

Place: Memorial Park (Marple) (Marple, Cheshire, England)

Year: 1922

Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors

Number of performances: 1

Notes

22 July 1922

Name of pageant master and other named staff

Names of executive committee or equivalent

Marple War Memorial Pageant Committee

  • Miss Denton
  • G. Brooks
  • J.T. Budenberg
  • F. Pennington
  • J. Smith
  • Miss Sankey
  • D.J. Driver
  • Mr Freeman
  • A. Ashworth
  • W. Potts
  • Mrs Pennington
  • J. Jinks
  • Mr Rogers
  • J. Smith
  • A.K. Johnson
  • Miss Dobson
  • Mrs Burdass
  • F. Roberton
  • F. Barlow
  • A.J. Sinclair
  • Miss E.M. Barlow
  • A. Hulme
  • Mrs Granger

Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)

Names of composers

n/a

Numbers of performers

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Financial information

n/a

Object of any funds raised

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Linked occasion

Dedication of Marple War Memorial Park

Audience information

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

n/a

Associated events

  • Speeches
  • Evening programme of events

Pageant outline

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Vernon, Sir Richard (1389/90–1451)
  • Vernon, Sir George (c.1578–1639) judge
  • Charles I (1600–1649) king of England, Scotland, and Ireland
  • Bradshaw, John, Lord Bradshaw (bap. 1602, d. 1659) lawyer, politician, and regicide
  • Bradshaw, Henry (bap. 1601, d. 1662) parliamentarian army officer
  • Milton, John (1608–1674) poet and polemicist
  • Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658) lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland
  • Arkwright, Sir Richard (1732–1792) inventor of cotton-spinning machinery and cotton manufacturer
  • Oldknow, Samuel (1756–1828) cotton manufacturer

Musical production

Music likely accompanied the dancing organised by Miss Johnson (maypole dancing) and Miss Wood (Girls' Institute)

Newspaper coverage of pageant

n/a

Book of words

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Other primary published materials

n/a

References in secondary literature

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Archival holdings connected to pageant

  • Marple Local History Society Archives holds material relating to the Dedication of Marple Memorial Park and its associated pageant. This material includes photographs and a programme.

Sources used in preparation of pageant

n/a

Summary

This pageant took place in Marple, Cheshire, near Stockport. It took place on the afternoon of 22 July 1922 and was associated with the Dedication of the Marple War Memorial Park. The whole event included speakers, what seems to have been a largely (though not entirely?) processional pageant, and an evening programme of entertainment.

The pageant was performed by what seems to have been a large cast, divided into seventeen groups. With one exception, each group seems to have been responsible for a particular period of history, ranging from 1220 (group 1) through to the 1830 (group 16). The final group (17) was a dancing group composed of members of the Girls' Institute. Interestingly, at least three groups seem to have dealt with the Civil War, with Roundheads and Cavaliers getting seemingly equal attention. The focus on the Civil War is unsurprising given Marple's fame as the home of John Bradshaw, the judge who signed the death warrant of king Charles I. On a perhaps happier note, maypole dancing also featured as part of the performance.

Quite how much acting as opposed to processing took place in the pageant is unclear, but it the event seemed to involve a significant emphasis on performance.



Footnotes

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Marple War Memorial Park Historical Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1578/