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Alice Buckton

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Alice Buckton
Alice Buckton at the first Universal Races Congress in 1911
Born(1867-03-09)9 March 1867
Haslemere, Surrey, England
Died10 December 1944(1944-12-10) (aged 77)
Wells, Somerset, England
Occupations
  • Writer
  • educator
PartnerAnnet Schepel
FatherGeorge Bowdler Buckton

Alice Mary Buckton (9 March 1867 – 10 December 1944) was an English educator, poet, community playwright, feminist and mystic.

In 1899 Buckton established a Froebelian educational institution, Sesame House, in London. Her mystery play Eager Heart, first performed in 1903, was the first of several pageant plays written or stage-managed by Buckton. A convert to the Baháʼí Faith, she recited an ode to open the 1911 First Universal Races Congress. After buying the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, she established it as a hostel in Glastonbury, helping to establish Glastonbury as a site of pilgrimage.[1]

Early life

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Alice Buckton was born in Weycombe, Haslemere, on 9 March 1867.[2] She was the eldest of seven daughters of the entomologist George Bowdler Buckton,[3] and his wife Mary Ann Odling.[4] She came to know Alfred Tennyson, who lived nearby, and years later still wore a cloak given her by Tennyson.[3]

Settlement and educational activity

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As a young woman Alice Buckton was involved with the Women's University Settlement which grew out of the work of Octavia Hill.[5][6] She then became interested in the educational ideas of Friedrich Fröbel,[1] and traveled to Germany to visit the Pestalozzi-Fröbel House. She managed to persuade the Principal there, Annet Schepel, to come to England and help set up a similar institution in London, the Sesame Garden and House for Home Life Training in St John's Wood.[5] In an 1898 lecture Buckton outlined a plan for this new institution.[7] Buckton emphasised the importance of motherhood in the thought of Pestalozzi and Fröbel, and declared the kindergarten to be part of the "woman's movement".[8] Sesame House opened in 1899, with Patrick Geddes on the committee.[3] One woman trained at Sesame House was Lileen Hardy, who went on to open the free kindergarten St. Saviour's Child Garden in Edinburgh.[9] By 1902 the school at Sesame House had sixty-five students.[10] Buckton and Schepel were partners who lived together until Schepel's death in 1931.[2][5]

Poetry and pageant plays

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In 1901 Buckton published her first poetry collection, Through Human Eyes. Verse from the collection was later set to music by Gustav Holst as The heart worships.[11]

Buckton's mystery play Eager Heart was first performed in Lincoln's Inn Hall in 1903.[12] The play was an immediate success. Three decades later there had been hundreds of performances and over 41,000 published copies of the play sold.[13]

Baháʼí conversion

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Buckton (standing second from right) as a delegate to the first Universal Races Congress, 1911

In 1908 Buckton became drawn to the Baháʼí Faith after meeting Wellesley Tudor Pole.[14]

Buckton attended the First Universal Races Congress in London in 1911,[15] opening proceedings with an 'Ode of Salutation' from Europe, alongside T. Ramakrishna Pillai speaking for the East and W. E. B. DuBois speaking for Africa.[16]

Buckton met ʻAbdu'l-Bahá several times and accompanied him on his speaking tour of England in 1913.[17]

Glastonbury

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a talk and film

In 1912 Buckton bought the Chalice Well in Glastonbury.[18] She and Schepel opened a hostel there which drew pilgrims from around the world, and Buckton continued to live in Glastonbury for the rest of her life.

In August 1913 Buckton stage-managed Caroline Cannon's Pageant of Gwent at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.[19] The following year she supported an Arthurian festival at Glastonbury, centered around the performance of a music drama by Reginald Buckley, 'The Birth of Arthur'.[20] She herself wrote and produced The Coming of Bride, first performed in Glastonbury on 6 August 1914.[19] The Coming of the Dawn was written to be produced at Christmas 1918 by the YWCA.[21]

A scene from her 1922 film

In 1919 Buckton spoke at a Leisure of the People Conference in Manchester, describing the way in which everyday people in Glastonbury threw themselves into performance of pageant plays. As a result, the University Settlement organized a May festival in Ancoats, for which Buckton wrote an allegorical play around the figures of Labour, Beauty and Joy.[22]

In 1922 she led a team who created the 68 minute film "Glastonbury past and Present". The film was said to the first about the history of a town.[23]

In 1925 she wrote a series of six radio sketches based on the Arthurian legends, performed by the Cardiff Station Radio Players with music by Warwick Braithwaite.[24]

In 1938 she received a civil list pension "in recognition of her services to literature and of the services rendered by her father".[25]

Death

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Buckton died on 10 December 1944 at the home of a friend in Vicars' Close, Wells, Somerset.[2]

Works

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  • 'Sesame Child Garden and House for Home Training', Child Life, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1899), pp. 32–36
  • Through human eyes: poems. Oxford: Daniel Press, 1901. With an introductory poem by Robert Bridges.
  • Eager heart: a Christmas mystery-play. London: Methuen, 1904.
  • The burden of Engela: a ballad-epic. London: Methuen, 1904.
  • The pastor of Wydon fell : a ballad of the North Country. London: E. Mathews, 1905.
  • Kings in Babylon: a drama, London: Methuen, 1906.
  • Garden of many waters, a masque. London: Mathews, 1907.
  • Songs of joy. London: Methuen, 1908.
  • 'Order of Service for Saint Bride's Day Gathering', The Forerunner, No. 4 (July 1909)
  • Ode to the First Universal Races Congress, Star of the West, Vol. 2, No. 9 (20 August 1911)
  • A catechism of life. London: Methuen, 1912.
  • The coming of Bride: a pageant play. Glastonbury: Elliot Stock, 1914.[26]
  • The meeting in the gate. A Christman interlude. London: E. Stock, 1916.
  • Daybreak, and other poems. London: Methuen, 1918.
  • The dawn of day: a pageant. London: Blue Triangle, 1919.
  • Glastonbury past and Present, 1922 film

References

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  1. ^ a b Stephanie Mathivet (2006). "Alice Buckton (1867–1944): The Legacy of a Froebelian in the Landscape of Glastonbury". Journal of the History of Education Society. 35 (2): 263–281. doi:10.1080/00467600500528628. ISSN 0046-760X. OCLC 425087093. S2CID 145129082.
  2. ^ a b c Reid, Ellie (2024). "Buckton, Alice Mary (1867–1944), educationist and playwright". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ a b c Lil Osborn (2014). "Alice Buckton: Baha'i Mystic".
  4. ^ Robert Steele; Yolanda Foote. "Buckton, George Bowdler". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32160. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ a b c L. C. G. Abdo (2003). The Baha'is in Britain 1899-1930 (PDF) (PhD). School of Oriental and African Studies. pp. 59, 74, 83, 98–99. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  6. ^ Abdo identifies her with an Alice Mary Buckton who married the Unitarian clergyman J. Estlin Carpenter. However, that Alice Mary was the daughter of a George Buckton of Leeds, and her dates were 1854-1931.
  7. ^ Pam Hirsch; Mary Hilton (2014). Practical Visionaries: Women, Education and Social Progress, 1790-1930. Routledge. p. 187. ISBN 978-1-317-87722-6.
  8. ^ Kevin Joseph Brehony (1988). The Froebel movement and state schooling 1880-1914: A study in educational ideology (PhD). The Open University.
  9. ^ Susan Gardner (9 March 2018). "The story of Kindergarten pioneer Lileen Hardy".
  10. ^ Evelyn Lawrence (2012). Friedrich Froebel and English Education (RLE Edu K). Routledge. p. 79. ISBN 978-1-136-49215-0.
  11. ^ "The heart worships". WorldCat.org. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  12. ^ ""Eager Heart": Christmas Mystery Play at Church House". The Times. 26 November 1921. p. 8.
  13. ^ Allardyce Nicoll (2009). English Drama, 1900-1930: The Beginnings of the Modern Period. Jones & Bartlett Learning. pp. 230–1. ISBN 978-0-521-12947-3.
  14. ^ Baha'i Teachings website, The Emotion and Spirit of the Stage (Part 4), article by Peter Terry dated February 11, 2018
  15. ^ "The Universal Races Congress". The Manchester Guardian. 18 July 1911. p. 5.
  16. ^ Marilyn Lake; Henry Reynolds (2008). Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the Question of Racial Equality. Melbourne Univ. Publishing. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-522-85478-7.
  17. ^ Baha'i Library website, Alice Buckton: Baha'i Mystic, article by Lil Osborn dated July 2014
  18. ^ Ian Bradley (2012). Water: A Spiritual History. A&C Black. pp. 203–. ISBN 978-1-4411-1173-9.
  19. ^ a b Roger Simpson (Spring 2018). "Arthurian Pageants in Twentieth-Century Britain". Arthuriana. 18 (1): 63–87.
  20. ^ ""Dancing scenery" in folk drama". The Manchester Guardian. 11 January 1914. p. 6.
  21. ^ "Court Circular". The Times. 23 September 1918. p. 11.
  22. ^ "May Day in Ancoats: A new festival for the maean streets". The Manchester Guardian. 30 March 1920. p. 12.
  23. ^ "Watch Glastonbury past and Present online - BFI Player". player.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  24. ^ "Broadcasting: the programmes". The Times. 25 June 1925. p. 8.
  25. ^ "Civil List Pensions". The Times. 16 April 1938. p. 8.
  26. ^ Nicoll, Allardyce (2009). English Drama, 1900-1930: The Beginnings of the Modern Period. Jones & Bartlett Learning. ISBN 978-0-521-12947-3.

Further reading

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  • Tracy Cutting, Beneath the Silent Tor: The Life and Work of Alice Buckton. Glastonbury, 2004.
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