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Coronation Day

(27 Posts)
Woody Sun 02-Jun-13 19:44:38

Today I took out of the cupboard my "coronation mug" dated 2nd June 1953. i can just remember lining up at the war memorial and being given the mug by the chairman of the parish council. it is in mint condition perhaps helped by the fact that I was an only child and had a Dad who was very particular about looking after these sort of things.

AlieOxon Sun 02-Jun-13 19:49:02

We never got mugs!
But I remember that was when we got a TV and all the neighbours came, about 20 people in our big room all came to see it.

shysal Sun 02-Jun-13 20:12:00

I had a mug, long gone now, a little replica coach and horses and also a commemorative crown (5 shilling piece), which I do still have.

annsixty Sun 02-Jun-13 20:25:24

I also still have my "crown".I do remember how awful the weather was and after watching on a friend's television we had a very wet procession in the village and I (nearly sixteen) "got off" with the older brother of a school friend.

HappyNanna Sun 02-Jun-13 20:36:26

I had a mug. Sadly it got broken several years ago.

yogagran Sun 02-Jun-13 20:37:26

shysal I was given (I think from school) a little replica coach and horses too. I was so fond of it, that a few years ago, I bought a replacement on eBay and that sits on my window cill (or is it "sill") by the sink

Deedaa Sun 02-Jun-13 20:55:03

I had the little coach & horses and we were given a coronation spoon and a little tin of chocolate at school. We went to parents because they had a TV and I think a couple of neighbours came in as well. But my main memory is ransacking the house looking for our new kitten, which turned out to have burrowed deep inside the sofa!

Enviousamerican Sun 02-Jun-13 20:58:45

I have a beautiful coronation bible with gold leaf edges and case that was a baby gift from close friends of my parents.1953 was my birth year and it is one of my most cherished possessions.smile

numberplease Sun 02-Jun-13 21:01:33

I had a mug and a coach and horses, sadly all gone now. My auntie was the only person in the area with a TV, there were about 20 people in her little prefab front room, watching on a 10" TV.
I remember loving a record played a lot on the radio, about a golden coach with a heart of gold, don`t know the singer.
I was a bit peeved, because my 10th birthday was on the 1st, I thought they should have had the coronation then, instead of the 2nd.

feetlebaum Sun 02-Jun-13 21:18:19

My family spent the day with friends who lived nearby - they had a television set! My brother and I were the same ages as their two daughters. This morning I emailed the daughter who is my age, now living in Australia top remind her that exactly sixty years ago we spent the day together

In the evening I took myself off to a jazz club,and failed ro pull a nurse I met there, but it was still a pretty good day! Oh, and I was taught how to drink Tia Maria through a thick layer of cream. Isn't it strange what one remembers?

Mishap Sun 02-Jun-13 22:30:46

I remember geting a new testament at school - I still have it.

We did not watch the coronation on TV as we did not have one - we got one the next day as my Dad figured thay would be cheaper then!

ninathenana Sun 02-Jun-13 22:41:00

I wasn't born smile

merlotgran Sun 02-Jun-13 22:42:25

My younger brother was born a week before the coronation. We were living in Malta and all the new born babies were presented with ER II souvenirs. I don't know what the girls got but my baby brother was given a shaving mug! hmm

harrigran Sun 02-Jun-13 23:03:51

I still have my china Coronation mug and it is in pristine condition, remarkable, considering it was just put in my hand and I skipped all the way home. I was seven when the Queen was crowned and we spent the day at my grandmother's as she was the only family member to have a TV. My elder sister was given a pair of scissors in a plastic case confused

Granny23 Sun 02-Jun-13 23:04:31

We got half-pint beer mugs at school with the royal emblem on. My Dad volunteered for the day shift to avoid the coronation and spent the evening, with a razor blade, amending everything with E11R to E1R. My sister and I were given the coach and horses sets by our Aunt who had used them to decorate her shop window. They did not last long however as, encouraged by anti-royalist Dad, we used to put them on the rails of the train set and run them over.
~probablyjustadmittedtotreason shock

Hunt Sun 02-Jun-13 23:10:12

I remember spending the night before the Coronation in Hyde Park, going to the loo at Marble Arch at one time, reading on the newspaper billboards and coming back to tell everyone that Hilary had conquered Everest. It did pour with rain but Queen Salote of Tonga drove past in an open carriage. How we cheered. I still have the little snaps that I took on my new Brownie camera.

chunckey Sun 02-Jun-13 23:33:56

I had a tin box of biscuits with the queens portrait on, a new testament and a crown coin in a plastic case, I used to live next to a park so all the locals organised a family sports day and a big street party all held in the park, I remember it well. smile

Goose Sun 02-Jun-13 23:35:19

I remember we had a 'street party' in London - although, because I lived in a council flat, it was held on the open lawns outside our homes rather than in the street.
All the mums 'n' dads sat at one very long trestle table and us kids were relegated to another table, away from the grown ups. I wore my best party clothes - as did everyone. Us kids were all given a Coronation mug or a spoon. That's about all I can remember (I don't even remember the raingrin)

glammanana Mon 03-Jun-13 14:43:59

We had a street party that stretched right down the Road,there where very few car's then so the whole Road was covered with tables and chairs,my poor dad was ill in bed with mump's a very serious illness for older people and I remember mum rushing up & down the stairs to check on him and to make sure my sister was OK she was just 6 mths old,my twin brother and I both got spoons and a small cup to take home with us.

annodomini Mon 03-Jun-13 15:40:39

I was twelve at the time of the Coronation. We were one of the few families in the vicinity with a TV set so the house was full of relatives and neighbours peering at the tiny screen. In the afternoon there was a pageant at the local football club in which I figured as an ancient Briton and later as one of Mary Queen of Scots's attendants. I don't know what happened to all the souvenirs such as mugs which I'm sure we had. All I have is a Coronation Oxo Cube box and a tiny pair of embroidery scissors - oh and a crown piece. It wasn't raining in Ayrshire (for a change) but it was gey dreich as they might say in those parts.

GadaboutGran Mon 03-Jun-13 18:00:59

I was living in Sydney at the time (no TV until 1956). I remember being given a souvenir booklet & later our school paraded down the High St with little Union Jacks to the local cinema to see the Coronation film. My knicker elastic burst so I used my flag to hold my knickers up through my dress.
In 1954 we went to the Sydney Botanic Gardens to watch the Queen arrive on her first Commonwealth tour. The school also had a trip to see her at the Show Ground & lots of kids fainted in the heat.

Nelliemoser Mon 03-Jun-13 22:07:36

I cannot quite remember it, I think we went to watch ?Mrs Felthouses Television. I think that was her name! Where that came from I have no idea.
I do remember a couple of days afterwards going from Wellingborough to London on the train to look at the decorations. I don't remember London! Just the train! I was sitting in sort of string? rope sling in a luggage store at the end of a carriage. No seats available as the train was packed.

I was about 5yrs and 4months.

Aka Mon 03-Jun-13 22:49:45

We went to Gourock, on the Clyde, for the day and watched the submarines and other naval ships with all flags flying. I remember having a badge which morphed from Princess Elizabeth (as was) to Prince Philip which I thought was wonderful and magical. But then I was very sick on tone way home.

FlicketyB Tue 04-Jun-13 11:45:47

My father was posted to Hong Kong in early 1952. No television, we had to wait three months for the film to come out. But there were tremendous celebrations. Every community had celebration arches over their main road, built of bamboo and decked with colourful decorations and pictures of the Queen, and on the day there was a huge procession through the Kowloon with colourful floats and an enormous dancing dragon that needed several teams of people to take it in turns to dance in it as it was so big and the procession route so long. The Whitfield Barracks had a frontage to Nathan Road the main street in downtown Kowloon and my father managed to obtain front row seats for us all. It was such an exciting day.

Later my grandparents gave me a replica of the coronation chair, cast in sold bronze and six or seven inches high and a pop-up book of the coronation. Both of which I still have.

nonnasusie Tue 04-Jun-13 15:41:27

My coronation mug is sitting next to my computer holding all my pens & pencils etc.!!