Wigan Album
Park Lane
4 CommentsPhoto: Keith Beckett
Item #: 31453
It must have been a welcome break from food rationing which still had another two years to run.
I was given the photo at the coffee morning at Park Lane chapel, a few hundred yards from the Red Lion, by George Thompson.George is on the right hand side in front of the lady who is second from the front.
1953 surely if it was a Coronation Party.
It rained that day I remember, because our Coronation party was transferred to the old boy's school hall in St Pats. Princess Elizabeth became Queen in 1952 when her father died. I can just remember coming home from school at dinner time and telling my Mam the King had died! (As if she didn't know already) I would be about 5 but it is very clear in my memory, I can see her stood in the kitchen with her sister and me breathless with the news!
I remember at school the headmaster coming round to every classroom with the news mid morning. In my teenage naivety I thought the coronation would be in the next few days and my only concern was not the king's death but if we would get a day's holiday for the funeral and coronation.
Looking at this photo again brings back the memory of the commemorative mug we children all received. The queen's picture on it, I have no idea where mine went to. The children have got theirs on the table along with the bottles of pop with straws, looks like some have orangeade and others have dandelion and burdock! Piles of 'fairy' cakes and sandwiches, perhaps bowls of jelly, served by volunteer mums resplendent in 'pinnies'! It didn't take much to make kids excited in those days! I think those mugs are worth a bit of money these days, especially after the last anniversary. They're nearly as rare as 'gollywogs'!