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Royal Coronations : Birmingham response

Bernard,while life was tough it taught a lesson,and it also gave you a major victory,you got through it,and made a better life,off your own bat.

Kids these days get it all,and if mum don't give it the social services gives it.But then the problem is that they don't know how to get it themselves for later in adulthood,

Tim
 
Wessex, everything in HK was cheap then, except accommodation, rents were very high, but the RAF provided a rent allowance and with addition of marriage allowance, overseas allowance and flying pay on top of my pay we got along OK Eric
 
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Eric the chance to travel back then was fortunate indeed.Most people never got beyond an industrial fortnight in unsunny Breen Sands.
So even though you have suffered a sad loss,think of all those wonderful exotic memories you shared together,in a far away paradise,and that at a time when they still had a ration book at home.
Bet you wouldn't trade those memories for anything in the world.
 
Just caught up with the 'Coronation' thread (I don't like to rush things!) I too was at the Marsh Lane party. My parents and brother were with my grandparents who lived at 52 Marsh Lane - I was just 5 - my memory is sitting on a horsehair sofa watching my grandpaent's 9" Bush tv. Grandad had measured out the distance at which we should sit for safety! I was wearing a white frock with red/blue/white sash; it was short and the horsehair made my legs itch! I recall going out to the street (was there possibly a central reservation?) and being given a coronation mug and then going upstairs somewhere in a pub for tea - presumably the Red Lion.
 
Hi,and welcome to the forum.

Your grandparents house was on the opposite side of the road to my parents house.

There was/is a large grass central reservation in Marsh Lane.
It was arranged that the tea would be outdoors but the weather turned nasty so the landlord of the Red Lion put plan B into operation
and we all went into the upstairs function room of the pub.
 
A family photo showing children in Cavandale Avenue Coronation 1953. Even the children's bikes and toy prams are decorated. How we liked our street events back then, I don't think we see things like this these days, but I might be wrong.

Coronation_1953.jpg
 
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Great pic Phil those were the days Not a care in the world & we still had all those Skating days to come :0)
 
Hi Keith - Yes we had the patience to wind all that coloured tape round the cross bars and mud guards on the bikes - but it was a Coronation !
 
The Baron spotted a relative in this old evening mail photo of a Coronation Outing.

CORORNATION_OUTING_UPPER_THOMAS_ST__1.JPG
 
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what a lovely pic phil....i think the last good street party i had was in 1977 for the queens silver jubilee...great day it was....

lyn
 
Hi Lyn - Now I think back my last street party was the 1977 Silver Jubilee. Children and adults in fancy dress - and we all had a great day - but so long ago - happy memories.

Phil
 
In addition to the wonderful street party. in 1953, which I attended celebrating the coronation of Her Majesty Queen II I also remember, not so well of course, were those of VE Day (May 1945) and VJ Day (July? 1946). It was truly amazing, after six years of food shortages and rationing, what many women donated from their larders for the bean feasts. One feature of the coronation entertainments for children was a double deck bus ride around the City Centre and some of the inner city suburbs, having houses which had no front gardens, which allowed for a lot of street bunting. I made sure I was upstairs in the front seats. As an aside, my house won the prize of the best decorated house in the road. I was fortunate in that I was able to obtain some items from my fathers company which had some very nice items for decoration buildings.

Mention in an earlier post was made of the commentary by the late Richard Dimbleby. How different was he and Raymond Baxter compared to the chattering women now in BBC and ITV employ (anyone who watched the visit by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Birmingham last year will recall the women commentators/interviewers who consistently spoke over important speeches - actually I ended up watching Sky Freeview Ch. 82).

I moved to Devon in the year after the coronation but have managed one street party since. That was Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee in 1977. I was somewhat older by this time so decided to forego the ices, jellies and sweets.
 
Hi All,

Coronation Day 1953 I was a constable at Aston Police Station. I was working 2pm - 10pm. We were instructed to only patrol the main roads such as Aston Road North, Lichfield Road and Aston High Street. We kept out of the side roads unless called upon. This was because it was feared that if we patrolled where the street parties were being held the good people of Aston would insist on our having a drink with them and we might well imbibe too much. As if we would.

Old Boy
 
Ah Old boy, but did you take notice of instructions not to go down the side roads...I wonder????
 
Coronation Day June 1953 was cold and breezy, but nothing was going to stop these 'Brummies' in Moorside Rd Yardley Wood having a street party even if overcoats and raincoats had to be worn.

Coronation_St_Party_Moorside_Rd_Yardley_Wood_s.jpg
 
I was living not very far from Moorside Road at the time, we had our Coronation party inside the school - Highter's Heath, so we were warm and dry. I remember it quite well, a lovely time was had by all.
 
The few Brownie snaps i have (taken by mum) show me wearing my smart overcoat trimmed with velour....
You can see clearly the bunting and Union Flags adorning the houses.......
We lived at 82 South Rd Erdington where i was born....
I loved the Steam Engines at the bottom of the garden.
I recall only one family had a t v.......We got one in 1955
 
One of my first memories is of the Coronation on the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] June 1953. I remember a marquee, which was probably only a large tent, behind our house in the grounds where the derelict Kitwell House stood in Bartley Green. I was almost 4, but I remember it clearly.
 
Hi Bewdley: Here is a photo of Kitwell House and some information of Jane Webb Loudon who became famous for writing gardening books and also wrote a futurist book called "The Mummy". Her family lived at Kitwell House.
A blue plaque remembering her is on this site: https://bgdhg.co.uk/Kitwell.htm
 
Thanks for the info and link Jennyann I have learned something today.
 
Thanks for that info Jennyann. I have many memories of the fields, woods and farms around Kitwell House and Farmer and Mrs Harry Bayliss who farmed at Kitwell Farm, I will put some on here soon and will email a copy to Kitwell School for their records should they be interested. My 86 year old Mother often talks about the things that happened in the past and I am trying to keep a record of her memoirs for my own children and grandchildren to read in the future, my deepest regret is that I didn't make a good enough record of my Father talking about his time in the army and meeting my mum in Birmingham before the end of the war, hey-hoe we live and learn.
 
Five days before I got demobbed from the RAF on my 20th Birthday.More interested in getting out that the Coronation! John Crump OldBrit.Parker.Colorado USA
 
I remember Coronation Day well because my mum had made me and my sister lovely rosettes in red white and blue and pinned them on our shorts (which were whiter than white to go with the T-shirts also whiter than white), we looked a treat...However There was a fruit shop owner on Lichfield road Aston (there were two actually "Frenchie's & "Robinsons" cannot remember which now) who decided to do tours to other street parties to see what they were like. He had this big car with lovely red leather seats. Me and my sister decided that we wanted to go and have a look, so off we went with the first party of sightseers. It turned out a disaster as far as my mum and dad were concerned for the red leather seats had turned our shorts and t-shirts into a mixture of white and varying shades of deep red to pink.

My mum said all her hard work scrimping and saving for the outfits not to mention the time taken sewing the rosettes. had come to nothing and we looked like a couple of urchins. Needless to say the fruit shop owner was told off good and proper for polishing his seats with red polish. Me and my sister well...We looked like a couple of urchins. x
 
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I have come across some old newspapers and these pictures are from The Daily Herald, May 13th 1937
 
This looks like the Queens uncle on his way to the Coronation in 1937, he was killed during the war when a plane he was in crashed into a hill in Scotland. Bernard
 
Thank you for that Bernard. The paper has been folded across the headline for many years making it unreadable.
 
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My best friend was born on Coronation Day - 12th May 1937, she received a silver spoon, from I think one of the Bbirmingham newspapers of the time, unfortunately her mother didn't treasure it, using it as an ordinary spoon and it didn't survive. In later years her mother bitterly regretted not looking after it.
 
I was born on that day and I can confirm that the spoon was presented by the Birmingham Gazette. Also received a silver christening cup from J Smedley Crooke who was MP for Deritend at the time. I still have both.
 
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