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Royal Coronations : Birmingham response

Coronation Party and photo.

The coronation party photo was for children of Holte and surrounding Roads. The ladyin white on the left is my mom and the other Lill Turner her friend from the IMI canteen. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Probably because I had a drawing pin stick in my kneecap. It didn't half hurt. The other is a photo of myself.
 
coronation

i too remember the coronation we had a party in the street and we all had a mug long since gone also a medal which i still have with my name on the back and the date of course.my mom made me a dress out of a union jack and can remember it being very scratchy .i can also recall my dad making a hunting horn and him and a couple of freinds driving round our sreet blowing for all he was worth to the loud shouts of the neighbours as if i recall it was early in the morning im not sure where the lorry came from that they used. as for tv we all squeezed in to the lady over the road as at our end of cromwell st. they were the only ones to have one it was by todays standards very tiny oh happy days .i have also got a copy of the sheet music for a golden coach my mom played piano and dad played a banjo as well as the spoons. can anyone remember running up to dartmouth street to watch the billy smarts cicus come to town.
 
Yes we did i was 4 years of age then. this photo was taken in eversley road small heath where we lived at the time.
 
Another event was in the news that day.Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing,climbed Mount Everest,they held the news back for 3 day's.
Also, I fell of my bicycle and damaged myself,but that was not reported
 
I too remember the Coronation. We had our jelly fight at a little cafe on the corner of Warstone Lane, opposite Stoddards butchers. Afterwards we played games in our street and won prizes. We had a fancy dress competition. I had a beautiful Coronation dress made by a lady who had a little shop on Spring Hill (opposite the library). It, of course was red, white and blue. The skirt was red tulle, I felt like a princess in it. From school we had a cup, saucer and plate (which I still have). Also we had a charm bracelet with all the charms relating to the day, like the coach, the throne etc etc, which again, I still have. I had to go next door to watch it all on the television, but that did prompt my dad to go and buy a TV the following week. He bought a Marconi which was absolutely useless, he soon changed it for a Pye. I know I was young, but the coronation on TV was too long for me and I got bored.

Maggs.
 
Further to Raymond Wilkes photo, I too was born in Eversley Road, Small Heath and remember the Coronation in 1953. All the parents saved money for the celebrations and it started in the morning when all the children were loaded onto buses hired for the morning to provide us with a tour of Birmingham whilst the parents laid out the Street party for our return. We were also each given a bag of sweets aqnd a Coronation day mug. The street party included a fancy dress parade (I think there is a clue as to Raymond's entry from his picture). I went as a clown and my brother as a TV set! This consisted of a cardboard box with the front top cut out to show his head and the bottom front with a number of dials painted on. Ingenious what.

In the evening, a stand was set up on what we called the bomb site at the bottom of Eversley road near to Green Lane where a band performed for the parents. It was a great day
 
We had a sweet shop and owned a tv with a magnifying screen in the front of it my step father put the telly on the counter in the shop and seats for all the nieghbours to come in and watch. Our momento was a tin of toffees with a picture of our new queen which I still have. I seem to remeber a street party as well.
 
Are the Barrets your searching for from small heath I know of the whereabouts of raymond barratt married to Susan.

Jean
 
I remember going into school to watch the Coronation Ceremony on the headmistress's 12" television. We didn't have one at home, and she was the only one around who had one that I knew of. As she lived on the premises, she invited several girls to her private lounge to watch it, and I was one of them.

I also remember having a metal toy coronation coach and horses, but don't know what happened to it. It would probably be worth a fortune today to a collector!!
 
56 years ago today we were all enjoying a piece of history,the Coronation of Elizabeth 11.
It was not such a good day as today weatherwise as far as I can remember.
It started off OK but by the time we came to the party food it had started to rain,for the residents of Marsh Lane Erdington,plan B came into force and the landlord of the Red Lion let us use the room above the pub.
My sister age 7 was Dick Whittington with our black kitten in her arms in the fancy dress competition,looking at the photo today and remembering that mom had made her costume in bright green she looked more like Robin Hood.
I have still got my mug and my crown(5/-).
 
I was seven at the time and my Aunt Nell bought me a coronation coach and horses. Wish I still had it. I have one of the 6 pences that were minted and taken out of circulation when the King died. Thanks for that Alberta I hadn't realised it was today. Jean.
 
I was fortunate to be in Hong Kong with my late Wife in the RAF at Kai Tak at the time and the dragon parade was absolutely wonderful, it seemed to be miles long, but the best was at night, the whole city seemed to be lit up and firework displays all over the place as only the chinese can do. I have a card with 18 pics on and have attached 2 Eric
 
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Eric, that looks a bit better than our Leamington Road, Sparkbrook, street party! lol
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Same here Cookie. Thanks for posting those photos of Hong Kong. Very different place now. My brother Bill worked for the British Government as a Transport Manager at Kai Tak for several years. Great photos of the Coronation in HK. I was there a couple of months ago and it's very different these days.

At Hidson Road, 56 years ago...is it really that long ago? Like many roads Hidson Road had plans for an afternoon party. There was a stage set up at the junction of Anslow Road and Hidson Road. This had been the site of the "Hitler" Bonfire following WW2 on VE Day. We were all watching our tv sets, most newly acquired, for the morning. Listening to Richard Dimbleby speak in hushed tones in Westminster Abbey. It was better than Pathe news because we were able to view this at home. Then the rain and cold came. We had no plan B like Alberta going to the Red Lion in Erdington. We all crowded into a neighbours garage and the songs the kids had rehearsed for weeks just weren't sung. The fancy dress comp. went off just fine. I didn't win with my red, white and blue dress but I loved wearing it. I remember practising "Jerusalem" with our neighbour Mrs. Berridge several times and "In A Golden Coach" at Mrs. Phillips, who is still alive and about 90 years of age. We all had a great day. I only have my Coronation certificate, no Cadbury's chocolate tin and the lovely mug. Thanks for posting and remembering this very special occasion.Alberta.
 

Quite by coincidence on Saturday the Belgian TV will be showing that episode of Dr Who where in 1953 people watching the coronation get sucked into their telly.
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Jennyman. I have an Album full of Pics we took during our 15 months in HK and yet none of the Coronation celebrations, so if my Wife had not bought that 18 pic post card i would have no record Eric
 
Shows how time flies.

Not even born then,yet got all the stories of my family all visiting my Uncle Harry's place for the TV.
Then it seems so long ago we cordoned off the street for her majesty's 25th,last real street party we'll probally ever see.Then I was in Warsaw passing the British embassy back in 2002,and noticed a lovely spread on her 50th....and now as Alberta points out we've gone even furthur.
 
Oh yes I remember it well! I had only been out of the army,for twoweeks was about to start work as a Postman the following week, also Enid and I got engaged on that day, it was her 20th birthday on June 4th.I keep asking myself where have all the years gone?Without
sounding morbid what the vicar says at the graveside is true,Man has but
a short time on earth, we only get one chance at it and looking back on
almost eighty years there are many things i would have done differently, the one thing I would not have altered is getting married in 1954 to the love of
my life! In the words of the song, You are the best that ever happened to
me, which I suppose is why it is difficult to adjust to life without her.
Bye take care Bernard
 
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Bernard what lovely photo's and memories you have. When you look at some people especially celebreties they flit from partner to partner but you two had something very special Jean..
 
Bernard, I lost "the love of my life" 11 years ago after 45 years of marriage and still miss her terribly, so I know just how you feel. I'm 79 and she would have been 81. Pic is on our1st wedding anniversary in 1953 Coronation year in Hong Kong whilst serving in the RAFEric
 
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cookie273uk said:
Bernard, I lost "the love of my life" 11 years ago after 45 years of marriage and still miss her terribly, so I know just how you feel. I'm 79 and she would have been 81. Pic is on our1st wedding anniversary in 1953 Coronation year in Hong Kong whilst serving in the RAFEric
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Can't have been easy,especially as she was such a beautiful lady.Still good to see you getting on with life,she'd have wanted that.
 
Actually cookie as it's a history forum should have asked you what brands the fags and beer were lol.
 
Wessex, cigs where Players, came in sealed tins of 50, about 60p a tin in todays money, local beer, I think the name Tiger rings a bell, could be wrong, long time a go.
Although I stopped smoking a long time ago, still like a drink though. Eric
 
Thanks Eric,do remember hearing about tins of fags.Long gone by my day....of course Hong Kong would have been cheaper for stuff like that,and I bet the food was great.
 
You know these youngsters must think all these old foggies are the same,
talking about the good old days all the time?A lot of people say oh we were
born too soon, I dont think so, although I had a blinging awlful childhood,
my parents spent most of they time, and money in the pub but to them it
was the "norm", but to us there were eight kids altogether it meant no
shoes on your feet and going to bed hungery most nights. Once I had
escaped and joined the army everything was fine.Its hard to believe, not
what we but what we didnt have! no toothbrush, no underpants, no pyjamas but the army changed all that, I can remember on kit inspection"Drawers cellular pairs 2, one pair on one in the wash sir.
Live was pretty tough at Caterham the Guards Depot, but I loved it!
Bye for now take Bernard
 
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