Search for
Search for
Search forBath Pageant plea for help
Thursday, December 04, 2008, 09:11
Next year will see the centenary of the Bath Pageant – an event which, as one of the organisers said, embraced 'all sects, all politics, all classes'.
Andrew Swift and I, at Akeman Press, are preparing a book about Bath in 1909, using the pageant as the central theme.
We are anxious to trace pageant memorabilia which may be held locally, and which we could photograph to use in the book.
We do not need copies of the books which were published at the time – I think we have an edition of just about every version that existed, from a slim programme with pictures to the complete story. We have also have is quite a range of the postcards, though we will be interested to hear of any more.
However, what we have not been able to trace are any of the souvenirs which were made for the pageant.
Bath Record Office has many of the designs from which the costumes were made, but others must have remained in private hands.
Do you know where there is one?
It would be even more exciting if anyone knows if their family still has an actual costume – or you may have photographs of a member of the family wearing theirs. Do you have any family accounts of the pageant from the time?
We would love to hear about it.
It is our policy to acknowledge all contributions to our books.
Next year there will be an exhibition at the Museum of Bath at Work, and we know that other people are working on a programme of events in celebration of the Bath Pageant. It would be nice to think that the council or Bath Tourism Plus will get involved – this could be the attraction to rival Bladud's pigs! They, of course, featured in the Bath Pageant as well.
To contact Akeman Press, email info@akemanpress.com with the title – Pageant Book or write to Pageant Book, Akeman Press, 58 Minster Way, Bath BA2 6RL, or call 01225 310364. If we are not there, there is voice mail.
Thank you all in advance – we look forward to Bath residents helping out as enthusiastically as they did for our best-seller, The Lost Pubs of Bath.
KIRSTEN ELLIOTT Minster Way Bath
Comment on this story