On 12-16 June 1905 the Sherborne Pageant was performed at Sherborne Old Castle to celebrate the 1200th anniversary of the arrival of Aldhelm in Sherborne. Over 800 performers took part and it is estimated that it was attended by 30,000 spectators.
The Pageant was devised by Louis Napoleon Parker (1852-1944), a former music master at Sherborne School who by 1905 was a successful dramatist in London. Parker’s vision for the Pageant was that it should be a truly community event involving everyone in the town: ‘The participants must include every class of the community, both male and female: peers and ploughboys; dignitaries of the Church and all the clergy; ministers of every denomination; young men and maidens; old men and children; the beautiful and the less beautiful; youth is no hindrance, and age no bar; nobody is too good to be in a Pageant and almost everybody is good enough.’
The costumes worn by the 800 performers in the Pageant were designed Mrs Florence Drewe (née Grabham) (1874-1961) and Henry Hudson (1864-1943), with the assistance of Miss Prior (who also emblazoned the coats of arms with Mrs Ffooks) and Miss Margaret Mason (1874-1954), an assistant mistress at Sherborne Girls’ School.
To make the costumes, fourteen working parties of women were formed in February 1905 by Mrs Frances McAdam (née Monck) (1847-1929) of Greenhill House (now The Green), Sherborne. The working parties each consisting of twelve members and were led by Mrs Bennett, Mrs Blanch, Mrs Bown, Mrs Brooks, Mrs Colclough, Mrs Douglas, Mrs Field, Mrs Foot, Mrs hansover, Mrs Nash, Mrs Prior, Mrs Roberts, Mrs Williams, Miss Lyon, Miss Martin and Miss Williams.
Mrs Mary Field (née Young) (1852-1939) of Hill House in The Avenue made a reproduction of the almshouse triptych for use in the Pageant, with which she appeared in episode 8 about the foundation of the Almshouse. Mary’s reproduction of the triptych was later used during the Second World War when the original was removed to Wiveliscombe for safety.
Many of the costumes used in the Sherborne Pageant were reused in July 1906 in the Warwick Pageant.
On the 22 June 1910 an auction of the remaining costumes and other paraphernalia used in the Sherborne Pageant was held on a wet evening outside the Urban District Council offices at Ludbourne Hall in Sherborne. The sale raised only £18, with many items, including the hobby horses, unsold.
Some costumes from the Sherborne Pageant are held at Sherborne Museum.
Rachel Hassall
- The 1905 Sherborne Pageant
- Sherborne Pageant March Past, 1905 (YouTube)
- Mother of All Pageants: the great Sherborne Pageant of 1905, presented by Gerald Pitman (2001) (Windrose Media Trust)