We may well have celebrated the Jubilee in 2012 … but our ancestors took to the streets back in 1953!

Staffordshire’s Senior Museums Officer, Chris Copp, recollects the Coronation celebrations of 1953

with some help from Mr W H Bowers …

A Coronation Celebration street race at Coppice Road, Redhill, Stone, June 1953.
A Coronation Celebration street race at Coppice Road, Redhill, Stone, June 1953.
We now have a second selection of images from Stone’s celebrations for the Coronation of 1953, from an album of photographs compiled by Mr W.H. Bowers at the time, and kindly lent by Stone Town Council.  

 Although the Diamond Jubilee celebrations took place last summer, the original festivities took place not in 1952 at the time of her accession, but in 1953, celebrating the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in Westminster Abbey on 2nd June.

A float in the Coronation procession, on the theme of ‘home’, on Stone 2nd June in 1953. Although the day started brightly, you can see that by the time this photograph was taken rain had set in.
A float in the Coronation procession, on the theme of ‘home’, on Stone 2nd June in 1953. Although the day started brightly, you can see that by the time this photograph was taken rain had set in.
Coronation Celebration street party at the Lotus shoe factory, Oulton Road, Stone, June 1953
Coronation Celebration street party at the Lotus shoe factory, Oulton Road, Stone, June 1953

Coronation Celebrations procession, 2 June 1953. The Quickfit and Quartz science float, pictured outside the Swan Inn on Stafford Street.

Coronation Celebrations procession, 2 June 1953.
The Quickfit and Quartz science float, pictured outside the Swan Inn on Stafford Street.

These details and all the images featured will shortly be seen on the Staffordshire Past Track website   (www.staffspasttrack.org.uk).  If you have any images to lend, or any extra information, please contact the Past Track team: Staffordshire Past Track, Staffordshire Archives & Heritage, Shugborough, Milford, Stafford ST17 0XB.  Telephone 01889 881388. email: past.track@staffordshire.gov.uk.