Tuesday 26 May 2009

A Georgian Bower

Thought you might like to see my photos of the Lichfield Greenhill Bower yesterday; as mentioned in the previous post, it's an ancient tradition going back to the middle ages. The key moment in the parade is the crowning of the Bower Queen (Kate Chaplin, pictured below) by the Mayor.

To honour Dr Johnson in his Tercentenary year, the Bower Queen's float was impressively decked out with a replica of Johnson's birthplace, complete with a sign on it saying the residents were out 'taking young Sam to the Bower'. I loved the attention to detail - the Bower Queen's chair was a replica of the base of the Johnson statue in Lichfield's market square (there's a pic of the statue here).

Also below are pix of the morris men, the dignitaries outside the Guildhall, and a view of the crowds on Beacon Street.


















Photographs © Memoirs of the Celebrated Mrs Woffington.

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1 comment:

Eliza Ward said...

Wow, that looks so fun! Being back in Canada I miss the events like that which were held in Boston all the time.