Axbridge Review: it’s official – the next Axbridge Pageant is set for 2029 to mark the 800th anniversary of the town’s Plantagenet charter – so mark your diaries
Byharrymottram
SEP 27, 2023 axbridge pageant
By Harry Mottram: To celebrate the awarding of the town’s 13th century charter, the next Axbridge Pageant slated for 2030 has been brought forward by 12 months by the Axbridge Pageant Trust to 2029. The new date will see the huge community play held in the town square staged over the August bank holiday weekend of Saturday-Monday, August 25-27, 2029, daily at 3pm.
In 1229 a charter granted by King Henry III (800 years before 2029) freed Axbridge traders from tolls and recognised the town as an important market centre in the county. Wool had become one of the town’s wealth generating industries as sheep on the Mendips became big business. Guilds were established to protect the commerce in Axbridge making it a centre for the lucrative trade and for the Crown a vital source of taxation and revenue. It is also the 750th anniversary of the charter granted by Edward I in 1279 allowing Axbridge to hold a fair.
The Axbridge Pageant Trust and the town crier Nigel Scott said it was important to mark the year as the charters gave the town an independence and a prosperity which began the process of leaving behind the constraints of medieval England.
Nigel Scott said: “The pageant has come to define the town since its inception in 1967 when the history play was created in the town square to celebrate the opening of the bypass which freed the narrow streets from through traffic. From that humble beginning the pageant has become globally famous with live streaming on social media, plus television and radio coverage, the subject of a social research project by universities and its cast of hundreds of local people. It was repeated in 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and again in 2022 – having been put back two years by the Covid crisis. People travel from around the world to see the three-day event complete with associated live music concerts – and so it seems appropriate to mark the 800th anniversary of the Plantagenet charter.”
The pageant trustees said more details will be announced in the coming months but asked residents and fans of the pageant to mark their diaries for August Saturday-Monday, 25-27, 2029.
Photo: Nigel Carson
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For more information call Harry Mottram on 07789 864769 or email harryfmottram@gmail.com
Axbridge Review is edited by Harry Mottram and is published for the interest of himself and fellow residents.
Harry is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc
Email:harryfmottram@gmail.com
Website:www.harrymottram.co.uk
Mobile: 07789 864769
Listen, listen, listen…
Listen, listen, listen… to…
The deafening sound of peace,
The sweeping sky above the square,
And the whisper of flying geese.
Seventy five years since VE day
A generation without a fuss
Wait here by the Oak House Hotel
For the Weston and the Cheddar bus.
They’ve witnessed heated traffic jams,
Before the bypass plans were out
Lorries backed up to Shute Shelve
Encouraged by excited shouts,
The cidered drinkers wave ‘em through:
“On the pavement, plenty rooms.”
Entertainment outside the Lamb,
On hot bank holiday afternoons.
Listen, listen, listen… to…
The deafening sound of peace,
The sweeping sky above the square,
And the whisper of flying geese.
She wore hotpants round the town,
As Axbridge Rural was shut down.
Her parent’s job moved to Sedgemoor DCC
With offices in Bridgwater ‘n’ Burnham on Sea.
She saw the Strawberry rail line close
And the year when the reservoir froze,
And stifled tears when her auntie died
In a blizzard on a mountainside,
The aircrash at Basle,
That left a scar
A family wreath for the funeral at noon
Too many died, too young, all too soon.
Harry Mottram
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Some background
In the 1960s the Cheddar Valley Railway (often known as The Strawberry Line) was finally closed after almost a century of use. The railway had taken Axbridge’s people and produce out into the wider world. It had been an escape to the seaside, to the shops of Wells and a means of getting to work for generations of workers. And it had placed the valley’s famous strawberries onto teatime tables from Scotland to Cornwall.
Then the age of steam had come to an end, and the motorcar was now king.
At the time Axbridge was a bottleneck for traffic with its narrow streets – with no alternative route. When the Axbridge bypass opened in 1967, heavy traffic ceased to pour down the High Street and through the Square. The traffic jams had been legendary with long tailbacks to Cheddar in one direction and Cross in the other.
Crowds would gather outside the Lamb Inn to witness the chaos as lorries and buses backed up in order to squeeze past the medieval houses.
Peace descended as the traffic roared past on the new road that ran along the old railway embankment – and the town was able to breath a sigh of relief. To celebrate, the community held a pageant in the Square with hundreds of residents embracing their inner Roman, Tudor and Victorian personas.
The two hour long drama immortalised the community’s history in a moving tableau representing many of the town’s key moments in time. From the era of the Roman Empire to Queen Victoria, the charters, fairs and personalities were brought to life by ordinary members of the public.
It was a huge success prompting further pageants in 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010. Each time the Square was turned into a vast arena and stage – to portray the long and extraordinary story of the town through drama, spectacle and pageantry.
phil@philsaundersassociates.co.uk
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The Axbridge Anthem
Written for the Axbridge Pageant 2022
Will you come gather,
Cornflowers and lavender?
Hazelnuts and blackberries,
And sweet juicy strawberries?
We’ll hook down the sloes,
Where the dark rhynes do flow,
Take fruit from the apple tree,
And honey from the honey bee.
We’ll splash in the clay pits,
And frighten the linnets,
Scratch our bare knees,
In brambles and trees.
And gather bunches of pinks,
On high Mendip ridge,
Buttercups and rosehips,
In the hedges of Axbridge
And give them to mother,
Aunty and brother,
From the places we roam,
In our blue lias homes.
Celtic, Roman, Tudor, Dane
Saxon, Norman, Worker, Thane
Soldier, Teacher, Farmer, Maid
Servant, Landlord, Mistress, Slave
Mother, Father, Cousin, Bride
Ancient, Baby, Adult, Child
We are Axbridge first and last
We are the future, the present and the past.
Harry Mottram
Media
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