This file is a pdf copy of a book I have written about this, the most important event to have take place in Butleigh in the last few hundred years. It was reported in many of the National papers and over 8,000 people attended the event over the four days it was performed (including the dress rehearsal). Around 300 players took part, mostly from the village of Butleigh itself, and the pictures shown here are a valuable resource for images of the local inhabitants.
The files are rather large and I have divided them on the same lines as the 'Contents' page in the introduction;
The Revel's conception, 1
Organisation and Preparation, 2
The Performances – and after including newspaper reports, 4
Other Newspaper reports and articles, The Balance and Presentations after the Revel, 6 & 7
The Tenor Bell, 8
The pages here are password protected for copyright reasons but it has been suggested to me that if enough subscribers could be found who were interested in purchasing a copy, it might be worth looking at the possibility of printing a small run of copies in the future – on a not-for-profit basis.
It is obvious that there are many more pictures still to be discovered out there and as more and more surface, and more players become identified, these will be added to the appendix. One picture in Appendix 1 and all the images and texts in 2 – 4 are taken from an album on the Revel donated to the Rural Life Museum [ www.somerset.gov.uk/somerset/culturecommunity/museums/somersetmuseums/somersetrurallife/ ] in 1985 by Mrs. J. Higman who has kindly granted me permission to use and reproduce them.
If you have any Revel pictures not shown here, or can identify any of the players, please contact me via :