Hugh Parry's Pageant, Drill Hall, Huddersfield (November 1920)

Rev. Hugh Parry’s historical pageant of the Mayflower was a roaring success throughout 1920 and into the following years. It debuted in Plymouth and had triumphant runs in Manchester and London, to the extent that the organisers were being pressed to remain in London longer than their initial run. This would have meant delaying the pageant’s arrival in Huddersfield, but the Huddersfield committee, under the responsibility of the Huddersfield Congregational Council, insisted on adhering to the original schedule. Thus the pageant arrived in the north for its five-day run, from 22 to 27 November. The pageant attracted praise wherever it travelled. As one commentator noted, “It is dramatic, human, idealistic, and yet realistic. It combines literary charm with historical accuracy” – thus it achieved all that historical drama could achieve.

The Huddersfield pageant took place on a specially constructed platform in the city’s Drill Hall, with performances scheduld for each evening. There was a huge audience for the opening night – a Monday, unusually – and the reception was enthusiastic. However, newspaper reviews were a little more cynical. As one asked, “...how much has the example of the Pilgrim Fathers really taught the world? How far is our homage to Liberty sincere?”. The report went on to grimly reflect that the pageant, like other commemorative activities, was an example of the triumph of hope over experience. After all, very little, and that only painfully, was ever learned from the experience of the past. For all the enthusiastic labour put into the pageant, its message would truly touch only a select few in the audience.

This reviewer may well have been the same who, the month before, had expressed a sincere hope that “when the ‘Mayflower’ pageant visits the town sermons may not be indulged in to the length customary in the days when the historic vessel sailed from Plymouth. Those were spacious days for the preacher, if not for the congregation...”

Huddersfield Examiner, “Mayflower Pageant”, 24 September 1920.

Huddersfield Examiner, “Mayflower sermons”, 2 October 1920.

Huddersfield Examiner, “The Mayflower Pageant; a large ‘house’ at the Drill Hall”, 23 November 1920.