This week, we take a look back at Bridport’s Royal Charter Pageant and how the town celebrated the 700th anniversary.

Derek Norman, a former pupil at Charmouth Church of England Primary School, found some old photographs of his mother’s, Edna Margaret Norman, from when they lived in the village until 1957.

Two photograph shows Charmouth residents enjoying the celebratory occasion of the pageant, with Edna pictured seated in the middle row with a dark top, with Derek the small boy without a hat in the front row in one of the photos.

The other shows a class at Charmouth Primary School in either 1953 or 1954.

Mr Norman also sent in a beautiful souvenir programme from the Bridport Royal Charter Pageant – an event that brought the whole town and surrounding areas together.

The Bridport Pageant, also known as Bridport Through the Ages’, took place from June 24 to June 27 1953, coinciding with a visit from Princess Margaret, a highlight for the town.

It consisted of eight episodes and 1,300 performers – quite a feat considering at that time Bridport only had a population of around 6,200 – and the pageant master was William C. Fear, a Canadian who fell in love with England.

The episodes detailed Bridport’s achievements, its market charter, the rope industry, its coinage and mint, as well as others, and the six performances sold out.

Princess Margaret watched the pageant on the opening night and was presented with a leather-bound blue souvenir programme tooled in gold – without the advertisements found in the original, which could be bought for one shilling.

She seemed to enjoy the pageant, with The News reporting her final words to the mayor as, ‘please thank everybody for the wonderful welcome given to me. I congratulate all who took part in the pageant’.

The pageant was a massive event for the town, with coverage from the Bridport News, Dorset Daily Echo and footage appearing on the BBC and it showed the mass enthusiasm the visit of royals to small towns still had in this period.

The News was highly complimentary of the event stating that it ‘revitalised the life of the town with results that may be evident for some time to come’.

The final performance of the pageant culminated in a torchlit procession of all the performers through the town.