Bridport residents enjoyed reminiscing as a film of the Royal Charter Pageant, held in the town in 1953, was screened at the town hall last week.

The screening was held ahead of the opening of Bridport Heritage Forum's 'Rationing to Rock 'n' Roll' exhibition, now open in Bridport Town Hall, which will transport visitors back to the 1950s.

The Bridport Royal Charter Pageant was held in 1953, 770 years after Bridport was granted its Charter in 1183.

Among those attending the screening was the Mayor of Bridport, Cllr Dave Bolwell, who commented: "Like all of Bridport Heritage Forum's projects, this has its roots in Bridport and the local community and the Charter Pageant film that we attended recorded one of the important local events of the 50s decade.

"We were greeted by one of the Trustees, Linda Bullock, who did an excellent job of standing in for the chair, Sheila Meaney. Linda kindly talked us through the running order for the afternoon including detail about what we were going to see and what to look out for during the presentation and films.

"The forum consists of a small committee of volunteers who've worked for over a year to bring this free exhibition to the town hall. They have worked closely with the town council for many years and they always stage the big exhibitions in August to provide an attraction not only for the local community, but also for the summer visitors to the town.

"Thanks to the hard work of deputy mayor, Cllr Ian Bark, who managed to put together the presentation, we were able to see a slideshow containing the adverts that were in the original programs and this led to a trip down memory lane for some of the audience.

"From what I could hear some of the people present clearly remembered the shops from that time, where they were, who ran them and what happened to them. The narrative was provided by Elizabeth Gale, a well known local historian, who provided great detail on the businesses featured and Ian Bark also assisted by introducing each slide.

"This was followed by the Windrose film of the pageant and it was surprising to hear that in 1953 the people of Bridport totalled around 6,000 and well over 1000 took part in the pageant in some way.

"For them, it was the chance to come together as a community after the struggles everyone had faced during the second world war and they certainly seemed to have had some fun on the day.

"No doubt for any local people, the main draw of the pageant was to be the visit of Princess Margaret on the opening night – apparently the first 'official' royal visit in the town's history. 

"Margaret was given a beautifully leather-bound blue souvenir programme, tooled in gold and printed on art paper – and lacking the advertisements of the normal souvenir. Fortunately the film has managed to capture some brief clips of her visit."

The 'Rationing to Rock 'n' Roll' exhibition will be open at Bridport Town Hall until August 19.