Coronation Pageant

Pageant type

Notes

The pageant was organised and performed by students from 10 secondary schools in Burnley.

Jump to Summary

Performances

Place: Massey Music Pavilion, Towneley Park (Burnley) (Burnley, Lancashire, England)

Year: 1953

Indoors/outdoors: Outdoors

Number of performances: 3

Notes

28–30 May 1953

The pageant took place on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th at 6.30 in the evening; and on Saturday 30th at 2.30 in the afternoon.1

Name of pageant master and other named staff

Notes

Names not recovered.

Names of executive committee or equivalent

Notes

Names of committee members have not been recovered. It is presumed that organisers came from the local education department and from among teaching staff at the schools involved.

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

Names of composers

  • Elgar, Edward

Numbers of performers

750

500-600 children acted in the pageant and there was a choir of 200 voices.

Financial information

Object of any funds raised

n/a

Linked occasion

Coronation of Elizabeth II.

Audience information

  • Grandstand: No
  • Grandstand capacity: n/a
  • Total audience: n/a

Notes

The venue was an outdoor bandstand, which had terracing to accommodate 2000 seated and 1000 standing.2 However, this number may have been restricted because of the specially enlarged stage. An audience of 800 attended the first performance on Thursday evening.3

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

2s–1s.

Tickets cost 1s or 2s4

Associated events

There were numerous other concerts, street parties, church services and sporting events held in Burnley to celebrate the coronation.

Pageant outline

National Anthem

Queen Matilda

Mary Tudor

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I

Spanish Armada

Queen Anne

Queen Victoria

Grande Finale—The Modern Age

Key historical figures mentioned

  • Matilda [Matilda of Boulogne] (c.1103–1152) queen of England, consort of King Stephen
  • Mary I (1516–1558) queen of England and Ireland
  • Elizabeth I (1533–1603) queen of England and Ireland
  • Drake, Sir Francis (1540–1596) pirate, sea captain, and explorer
  • Anne (1665–1714) queen of Great Britain and Ireland
  • Victoria (1819–1901) queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and empress of India

Musical production

A choir of 200 children sang live. The pageant opened with the national anthem. 'Land of Hope and Glory' was sung at the close of the pageant. Unspecified traditional songs were performed.

Newspaper coverage of pageant

Burnley Express

Book of words

n/a

It is unlikely that a book of words was produced. A programme may have been produced but a copy has not been recovered.

Other primary published materials

n/a

References in secondary literature

n/a

None noted

Archival holdings connected to pageant

n/a

Sources used in preparation of pageant

n/a

Summary

This pageant took place as part of the town of Burnley's coronation celebrations. Children from local secondary schools performed it, outdoors, on a specially extended stage at Towneley Park's music pavilion. Beginning with an episode centred on twelfth-century Queen Matilda and ending with a celebration of 'present day' and the new Elizabethan age, the pageant had eight episodes. The Matilda episode featured the Battle of Lincoln and the episode on the Armada included the famous scene where Sir Francis Drake was disturbed while playing bowls. Traditional songs and dances were performed as interludes to the episodes.6 No other details of the drama featured in press coverage.7 The audience was modest at the first performance, but this may have improved, particularly for the matinee performance held on Saturday 30 May. The relatively small amount of coverage given to this quite large event in the local press may be explained by the overall coronation fever at the time. Burnley's mayor attended the first and third performances.8

Footnotes

  1. ^ Advertisement, Burnley Express 9 May 1953, 4.
  2. ^ For a brief history of the music pavilion (which was demolished in 1968) in Towneley Park see a local history website for the park, accessed 20 September 2015 at: https://towneleypark.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/towneley-park-music-pavilion/
  3. ^ 'Over 800 See Historical Pageant Acted by Burnley School Children', Burnley Express, 30 May 1953, 12.
  4. ^ 'Coronation Celebrations: Advance Sale of Tickets', Burnley Express, 16 May 1953, 4.
  5. ^ 'Over 800 See Historical Pageant Acted by Burnley School Children', Burnley Express, 30 May 1953, 12.
  6. ^ 'News Gossip', Burnley Express, 9 May 1953, 4.
  7. ^ 'Over 800 See Historical Pageant Acted by Burnley School Children', Burnley Express 30 May 1953. 12.
  8. ^ Ibid.

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Coronation Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1267/