Cold War Secrets in Cumberland…
By Tom Hulme
The first surprise of my research trip to Matlock was
finding a pageant about my hometown of Buxton. The second was uncovering a
pageant that had some intriguing links to the secrecy and suspicion of the Cold
War years – well, sort of – in the little town of Brampton, Cumberland.
The Naworth Castle Pageant was a pretty small event in 1960. It was really more of a fete and short play than a ‘true’ historical pageant. The focus was on the Tudors and Henry VIII in particular – with his wives, of course. It was written by Derek Dodds and John Woodward, members of the International Writers’ Guild as well as colleagues at Rolls Royce. Both men had only recently moved to the area after Rolls-Royce had been employed, by the Ministry of Aviation in 1957, to manage the new site of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Test Centre. This terrifying sounding base was built at what was then known as Spadeadam Waste, a remote and mostly unused area in Cumberland. A shroud of secrecy enveloped the centre from the beginning. Local folk were obviously intrigued about what was happening at the new site. Dodds remembered how
One entrepreneur chartered ‘bus trips to take sightseers along the main Carlisle/Newcastle Road where he stopped, at a layby virtually opposite the Engine test stands. He also provided binoculars for his passengers but they had to take pot-luck at seeing an engine-firing. He was, of course, stopped and the Official Secrets Act duly read to him![1]
Dodds and Woodward were commissioned by Lady Constance Howard, on behalf of the Earl and Countess of Carlisle, to write the pageant as part of a fundraiser for the Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness Spastic Society. Howard, remembered Dodds, had invited the author along with another colleague to her ‘cottage’ to find out more about, as he put it, ‘these strange people coming to live and work in the County and so manifestly different than traditional farm workers and tradespeople’.[2] Howard was very actively locally, and sought to enlist these newcomers in the purpose of both raising money and cementing community relations. The pageant itself then was an exercise in community spirit – both from the people of Brampton and its surrounding area, and the Rolls Royce newcomers. 140 volunteers performed, and the courtyard of the castle was turned into an Olde English fayre, with stalls and entertainments, such as archery and a prize for the ‘prettiest grandmother’.[3]
W Ridley, the chairman of the Brampton Parish Council, thanked all those who had helped when he gave the opening speech for the pageant - and mentioned ‘especially those from Spadeadam who… worked with the local people.’[4] As Dodds recalled, the small pageant was a ‘huge success’ and ‘did much to further the reputation of the people at Spadeadam’.[5] It serves as an example of how historical pageantry could bring different people together – as much about the present it took place in, as the past that was performed. We can only wonder if the performers shared any secrets about what was really happening at Spadeadam – and whether it was a surprise, in 2004, when tree-felling uncovered the remains of abandoned excavations for a nuclear missile silo…
[1] D5496/5, Article about the Spadeadam project (with anecdotes) written by Derek Dodds. Derbyshire Record Office.
[2] D5496/5, Article about the Spadeadam project (with anecdotes) written by Derek Dodds. Derbyshire Record Office.
[3] ‘Tudor Days Recalled at Naworth Castle’, The Carlisle Journal (19th July 1960), p. 1 and p. 8; ‘Naworth Pageant Plans’, The Carlisle Journal (8th July). Loose cuttings in D5496/2/1, Newspaper cuttings concerning pageant held at Naworth Castle, organised by Spadeadam employees. Derbyshire Record Office.
[4] ‘Tudor Days Recalled at Naworth Castle’, The Carlisle Journal (19th July 1960), p. 1 and p. 8. Loose cuttings in D5496/2/1, Newspaper cuttings concerning pageant held at Naworth Castle, organised by Spadeadam employees. Derbyshire Record Office.
[5] D5496/5, Article about the Spadeadam project (with anecdotes) written by Derek Dodds. Derbyshire Record Office.