What's On
Whose Green and Pleasant Land?
Portable Pageant
Just two weeks until our portable pageant of ‘Whose Green and Pleasant Land?” hits Dorking Bandstand.
Come join us for FREE Spoken Word and Live Music — exploring how our rural landscape has been shaped, fought over, and accessed across the centuries.
Including live Folk Music form Maya McCourt (cello & whistle), Aliyah Kassam (violin) and Aaron Horlock (melodeon/guitar).
This portable performance is a first glimpse of the journey towards our full-scale pageant coming to Leith Hill Place this October.
Our Inspiration:
In 1938 local novelist E.M. Forster and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams created the community pageant ‘England’s Pleasant Land’. Presented at the manor house Milton Court just outside Dorking by the Dorking & Leith Hill Preservation Society, it told the story of the English countryside over 1000 years of history and campaigned for the preservation of the landscape.
Our pageant is not a revival but a contemporary response. continuation of the conversation. Developed through oral histories collected from across Surrey, it asks who shapes our countryside, who benefits from it, who feels welcome within it, and what kind of future we want to create together.
Developed in partnership with the National Trust @surreyhillsnt and Damn Cheek Productions @damncheek, supported by Arts Council England @aceagrams, the Vaughan Williams Foundation @vwfndn_ , Surrey County Council Your Councillor Fund @surreycountycouncil , and Mole Valley District Council @molevalleydc
Dorking Bandstand, Meadowbank Park, Dorking RH4 1JE
2pm, 8th August 2026
FREE, no ticket needed, just turn up!