Grand Pageant of Brighton

Pageant type

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Performances

Place: Preston Park (Brighton) (Brighton, Sussex, England)

Year: 1928

Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors

Number of performances: n/a

Notes

28 May – 2 June 1928

Name of pageant master and other named staff

  • Director [Pageant Master]: Kirwan, Patrick

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

1000

Financial information

n/a

Object of any funds raised

n/a

Linked occasion

n/a

Audience information

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

n/a

Associated events

Other events included a Gymkhana, Military Tournament, Horse Show, Decorated Car Parade, and a Great World’s Parade.

Pageant outline

Prologue. Passing of the Triumph of Decimus Clodius Albinus, AD 193

Episode 1. King Harold gathers the levies from Brightelmstone

Episode 2. Legend of the Nicholas Galley

Episode 3. Brightelmstone receives the charter of the Fair

Episode 4. Anne of Cleves visits her new possessions and views the May revels at Brightelmstone

Episode 5. The Passing of the Armada

Episode 6. Escape of Charles II, 1651

Episode 7. Birthday Festivities on the Stayne 1790

Episode 8. The Prince Reviews Troops at Preston, 1793

Epilogue. Brighton Memories and Celebrities

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Clodius Albinus, Decimus (d. 197) Roman governor of Britain
  • Harold II [Harold Godwineson] (1022/3?–1066) king of England
  • Anne [Anne of Cleves] (1515–1557) queen of England, fourth consort of Henry VIII
  • Charles II (1630–1685) king of England, Scotland, and Ireland
  • George IV (1762–1830) king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and king of Hanover

Musical production

n/a

Newspaper coverage of pageant

The Times
Observer
Manchester Guardian

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

There is very little information about this major pageant. It was staged by Patrick Kirwan, who staged major pageants during the 1920s at Harlech (1920), Arundel (1923), Wimbledon (1925), and Bexhill (1927). The pageant was the most significant aspect of a week-long celebration in the city and was visited by the Home Secretary, The Lord and Lady Mayoress and the Sheriffs of London, and the Duke and Duchess of York.

The reporter from the Manchester Guardian evoked a common trope of pageant reporting which stressed the uncanny appearance of people in historical costume in the present-day town, remarking that ‘I noted a lady wearing a Tudor headdress like a sugarloaf, with a veil attached, waiting to cheer the Duchess, and a man suspected to be a Saxon thane was seen hiring a deck chair on the pier.’1

Brighton also held a significant pageant in 1951.

Footnotes

1. ^ Manchester Guardian, 31 May 1928, 12.

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Grand Pageant of Brighton’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1614/