In case you’re wondering, the Bridlington Augustinian Society was founded in 1920 and grew out of the hugely successful Peace Pageant in 1919 when, to celebrate the end of World War One, locals in historical costumes paraded around the town representing in the words of the organiser Robert Horspool, “characters of the types of people who could reasonably be supposed to have inhabited or visited Bridlington since the earliest times.” The pageant ranged from “Ancient Britons” to “Hanoverians”, and included some dressed as Augustinian canons.  This prompted the society to take its name from the fact that in medieval times Bridlington was the site of a prosperous Augustinian Priory.

No, we don’t wear robes!  Neither are we a religious society.  We do though refer to  our occasional organised visits “pilgrimages”, and the gentlemen refer to each other as “brother”. For the fun of it, we use other monastic terms too.  For example the Chairperson is referred to as “My Lord Prior”.  He or she serves for two years having first served as Sub-Prior for two years.  The secretary is called the “Scribe”, and the treasurer is the “Bursar”. The list of previous Priors for your information is listed here.

The management committee is called the “Chapter”, and consists of several past Priors and other elected members. Some have specific duties to which we try to assign monastic titles.  Members of the Chapter without specific roles are termed “Reeves”.  Our annual dinner is referred to as the “Refection”.   On the Terminology page you can see all the terms we use in our day-to-day affairs.

Meet young Billy McGloon.  He was the “Druids’ sacrifice” in the Peace Pageant of 1919.