Pageant of rural history to be presented

Towards dusk tomorrow (Saturday) evening in Shebbear Square, almost under the Great Tree itself, scenes from the rural life and history of the parish will be told in pageant form as the culminating feature of celebrations associated with the opening of the new village hall.

With years of endeavour behind them, the villagers are celebrating a notable achievement in having themselves built the new hall which will meet a long-felt want.

As long ago as 1937 the site for the hall was purchased but then came the war and the need to concentrate on more immediate matters. In 1949 the Parish Hall Committee was re-formed and enthusiasm for the project was kindled anew. Gradually the money needed began to come in from whist drives, dances and other social functions and in the form of interest-free loans from the parishioners themselves and then thoughts began to turn to the building itself. A grant was also received from the Ministry of Education.

VOLUNTARY LABOUR

There was no shortage of voluntary labour and, using pre-cast sections, within little more than a month of the foundations being laid, the roofing and flooring stage was reached. Much of the building work was supervised by Mr. S.G. Pett and Mr. F. Shaddick. Brought from his home in the neighbouring parish of Black Torrington, Mr. Shaddick, a mason by trade, gave freely of time and labour. Carpentry and joinery were the special province of Mr. J. Jones who, in addition to evening work at the hall, spent every day and evening of his holiday there this year putting the finishing touches to the interior fitting. The electrical side of things was entrusted to Mr. Denys Bridgman and his mother , Mrs. Bridgman, senr., recently collected £17 among the women of the parish to provide curtains from the windows and drapes for the stage. Building of the hall has been a real communal effort and while it is impossible to mention all who have helped, none has worked harder than M. A. Buse who has been secretary of the Parish Hall Committee for the past five years.

COST £2,500

The building, which has cost about £2,500, measures 80 feet by 33 feet and has a central hall with a stage and additional rooms on either side of and at the rear of the stage which can be used as dressing rooms, committee rooms or kitchen.

Following the opening ceremony to be performed by Mr J.C. Hilton of Clovelly, who is President of Devon Parish Councils’ Association, a united service will be held in the new hall conducted by the Vicar (the Rev. H.A. Robins) and the Rev. A. Olds (Superintendent Methodist minister).

A fete with amusements and stalls is being staged in the grounds of the village hall during the afternoon and a display of physical training will be given by pupils of Shebbear College. A public tea and a concert by Stratton Silver Band are also included in the programme of celebrations. 

The pageant itself is in the nature of a triumph for, with the late harvest this year, getting all the characters together for rehearsal has presented a problem.

SPECIALLY WRITTEN

Written specially for the occasion by a notable son of Shebbear, Mr. E.A. Martin, the writer, broadcaster and critic, the pageant is entitled “We will remember…” It is a completely local production, in fact the only “furriner,” to use a West Country phrase, will be another writer, Mr. Victor Bonham-Carter as narrator. The joint producers are Mrs. Margretta Bridgman, who runs the Village Youth Club and is secretary of Shebbear A.F.C. and still finds time to satisfy a keen interest in amateur dramatics, and Mr. Bickford Dickinson, a justice of the peace, who is a master at Shebbear College and a grandson of the great local writer, Sabine Baring-Gould. 

With the bells of Shebbear Parish Church ringing out in the background, the pageant opens on the prologue spoken by Mrs. E.W. Martin: “Many people were born, cast their shadows, and died upon these acres. But they do not stand alone. They stand with the great minority, the country people in all the parishes throughout England, where the imprint of man is deeply scored into the soil.” The first scene will be in the nature of a dress rehearsal for the turning of the Devil’s Boulder which will take place on November 5th as it has done down through the centuries, and then the scene changes to the time of the Black Death, moving on to the confused days of the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. The legend that Anne Boleyn was descended from a Shebbear family is linked in the story and other scenes include references to apprenticeships at the time of the Industrial Revolution and the founding of the Bible Christian movement at Shebbear. One of the final scenes shows the presentation of the deeds of Lake Farm, Shebbear, the cradle of the Bible Christian denomination, to the President of the Conference in 1891 by Sir Samuel J. Way, an Old Shebbearian who became Chief Justice of Australia.

To conclude the day there will be a dance in the village hall and a whist drive in the Council Schoolroom.

Gazette article dated 1 October 1954