A Visit to Scarborough
By Mark Freeman
A visit to Scarborough
Mark Freeman
This morning our new project researcher Alex Hutton and I visited Scarborough to meet our project partners from the Scarborough Museums Trust. We are staging an exhibition on the Scarborough pageant of 1912, which will be opening on 12 September 2016 in the Scarborough Art Gallery on The Crescent. The exhibition closes on 10 October 2016, but will move to the town’s library for a spell after this.
The day started auspiciously for me as far as pageants were concerned. I stayed in York last night, and on the train to Scarborough I attempted the Guardian crossword. The clue for 9 across was ‘Show time raiding the larder (9)’, to which the answer, of course, is PAGEANTRY!
Above: Mark’s efforts at the Guardian crossword, 12 November. Note the answer to 9 across!
We spent the morning checking out the venue for the exhibition and some of the items that will be on display. The exhibition will occupy a room on the ground floor of the art gallery, and will include reconstructions of pageant costumes, some life-size cut-out figures based on the 1912 pageant photos, and various printed ephemera from the pageant. There will also be a rolling wall display of images from a huge book, nicknamed the ‘tomb’, which contains dozens of photographs of the pageant and its performers.
Above: The ground-floor exhibition room at Scarborough Art Gallery. In ten months’ time, this will be full of pageant material!
At lunchtime on Wednesday 28 September, local historian Keith Johnston will be giving a public talk entitled ‘Yorkshire Pageants of the Edwardian Period’. Keith is writing a Master’s dissertation on Yorkshire pageants, and will be the main author of the exhibition display boards.
Back in April, Charlotte and I were in Scarborough, where we had a stall in the library, gave a well-attended public lecture, and previewed the life-size cut-outs. We got some local press coverage, and discovered a wide and deep interest in the pageants of North Yorkshire.
Above: A page from the ‘tomb’, a huge book of photos that will be on display next year.
As for Alex and I today, before a pleasant fish-and-chip lunch in Mother Hubbard’s cafe, we had time for a brief stroll along the sea-front. Although it’s the middle of November, the weather was lovely. We’ve well and truly whetted our appetite for next year’s events.
Above: The sea-front at Scarborough in the November sun.