SheffGens
Family and Social History
The following is an extract
from "THE PEA POD". House
magazine of Batchelors Peas 1953
This issue included a look at the upcoming Coronation
and a look back at Coronations of the
past. The full report was originally written by P Vincent Taylor
The Crowning of our Queen
On June 2nd, when Queen Elizabeth arrives at Westminster Abbey in the State Coach, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh she will renew the dedication she made on her becoming of age: "That my whole life, whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service. God help me to make good my vow".
After the ceremony of the Coronation when she will be anointed with body oil, she will be Sovereign in the truly religious sense of the word. The pattern of preparation touches the farthest edges of the earth. Ships will cross the oceans and planes travel the air routes of the world to bring millions of people to enjoy the pageantry and the colour of this occasion.
Crown Jewel replicas
Some replicas of the Crown jewels including such famous Crowns as the St, Edward Crown (pic below) which is worn during the Coronation for only a few minutes owing to its weight (five pounds), Sceptres and Orbs, all of which are included in the Coronation ceremonies.
St Edward Crown
Coronation Times in Sheffield
(from Victoria to Elizabeth)
"Heir of a noble ancestry and mother of a mightier race". With these resounding words, the Sheffield Mercury and Hallamshire Advertiser on 30th June 1838, hailed the new - crowned Queen Victoria. Apart from the fact that "heiress" would have been more accurate and that she was a girl in her late teens, its hard to improve on this description today when Sheffield prepares to celebrate the Coronation with traditional loyalty and rejoicing. Study of our local newspapers make it abundantly clear that Sheffield has never been lukewarm in greeting the accession of a new sovereign.. True, the Sheffield Mercury on June 30th - two days after Queen Victoria's Coronation -- contained no reports of Sheffield jubilation's, though devoting two pages to the celebrations in London. However, this was doubtless due to the leisurely pace of the age rather than disloyalty, for in the next edition, on July 7th, appears a glowing account of how the poor of Sheffield were "treated by their landlords and opulent neighbours" to appropriate entertainment's. Even the debtors in Scotland Street Goal, over one hundred in number, were entertained by the governor to a repast of beef and mutton, with plum pudding. The debtors drank the Queens health, three times three !
Moved by the prevailing spirit of benevolence, the Master Cutler of the day sent "a small sum" to the troops of the Royal Horse Artillery at the barracks. Perhaps the sum was too small, for it was promptly sent back as "infringing the usage of custom to the service". The soldiers asked the Master Cutler to give the money to charity; they themselves were satisfied to possess the good wishes of the inhabitants of Sheffield.
Benevolence, alas, does not seem to have greatly stirred the hearts of the Sheffield Magistrates in Coronation week. The bench presided over by a clergyman committed a young girl, Harriet Joyce, to the House of Correction for three months for having robbed two younger children of 3s . 6d which they were bringing back to their mother from a pawnbrokers (this was quite a large sum in those days).
The advertising columns contain further news of Sheffield's celebrations in Queen Victoria's honour. There was a public soiree in the Cutlers Hall at which an original ode was sung. At the Music Hall, there was a Coronation Ball, and a gentleman named G F Bywater" respectfully announced to the Clergy, Gentry and Public of Sheffield" that he had been engaged by the Coronation Committee to exhibit a grand display of fireworks. School children were admitted free to the Botanical gardens where a "band of music had been engaged to attend".
King Edward VII
Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years. By the time her son Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, came to the throne, newspaper technique had advanced so considerably that we are treated in 1902 to a much fuller account of the festivities.
Appendicitis postponed the elderly Kings Coronation and threatened his life. Because of this he was given an even more joyous welcome by his people when he was crowned in August after his recovery. On Coronation eve, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported that an orderly crowd "Mafficked" in a moderate manner. There was a plentiful distribution of "innocuous confetti" and "processions of youths emitted volleys of sound from paper trumpets which were sold in the street for a penny". Cockayne's Arcade was lit like Aladdin's palace, but the piece of resistance was an illuminated tramcar. Mounting this vehicle at the Town hall, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield "his face radiant with delight" declared that London, from which he had just returned, was not to be compared with Sheffield in the magnificence of its decorations and the loyalty of the peoples show of affection. The tram then carried the Lord Mayor through the streets, pursued by shouts of "Good Owd George Senior !" and "Sithee, t'Lord mayor"
Illuminated tramcar 1937
King George V
Edward the peacemaker reigned for ten years and in May, 1911, his son George V and Queen Mary were crowned in Westminster Abbey. Again Sheffield was not found wanting. We read of teas and entertainment's for the aged poor, decorated tins of cocoa, fireworks and drums and routs such as accompanied the 1838 Coronation. "The true mark of the deep loyalty of the people" observed the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, "was found in the innumerable tiny insignificant flags that protruded from the windows of the small houses in the meanest streets."
Bonfires provided a ring of fire on the hills around the city -- a forest of wood sleepers and no fewer than 70 tar barrels being consumed in the joyous celebrations, and, of course, there were fireworks displays. One of the fireworks display set pieces was "a choir of fiery vultures emitting loyal greetings" with what was described as no accurately, as "an astounding effect." Chinese fire demons and Mephisto flashes were other dazzling wonders that ushered in King George V. The charitable cocoa was this time supported by cakes of chocolate and was given to 82,000 school children. Again an illuminated tramcar ground its way through the slums and suburbs of Sheffield. The cost of living was already rising and in 1911 even one illuminated trancar set the ratepayers back £250 -- where are the economical tram-tickets of yesteryear ? However, the Sheffield Telegraph leader writer was able to announce with relish that penny paper trumpets once again proclaimed "hoarsely and remorselessly the approval that Demos bestows upon the crowning of England's monarchs."
Unknown street in Sheffield
Some of the younger representatives of demos appear to have rather hazy notions of what exactly was going on. "Where will the King be crowned ?" a town councillor asked the pupils of one of the city's infants schools. "Please, sir," was the answer "Bramall Lane" !
Times were changing. For the first time a different note was heard from Ireland. A proclamation posted in Wexford denied that the King could be crowned King of Ireland. Likewise Mr Keir Hardie in what the Sheffield Telegraph calls "a characteristic outburst" at Derby gloomily remarked that behind the soldiers guarding the route would be a weltering mass of suffering and misery that would disgrace a savage nation.. A clergyman addressing a YMCA assembly at Leeds said that the rank and file of the young men were practically heathen. One seems to have heard that sort of statement recently !
Sheffield was not dismayed either by the clergyman or by Mr Keir hardie. One citizen went so far as to stage a little private bonfire by setting alight a large can of petrol on the roof of his house -- one of the highest in Sheffield. (In West Hartlepool a pauper got the same idea for different reasons -- prevented from attending the celebrations he set fire to the workhouse!) No such excesses seemed to have marred the day in Sheffield for, under the heading "Sheffield's Sober Celebrations", the Sheffield Telegraph reports that the Sheffield Magistrates had only half a dozen drunks to deal with and they represented an accumulation of three days revellers. Each one was fined 5 shillings; no House of Correction fir them !
On the Moor there was another sign of the times. At the Sheffield Empire, cine-matograph pictures of the Coronation were shown only two days after the event. Time marches on.
Chapel Walk
King George VI
Many of us have personal memories of King George VI -- May 12th 1937. It was not Royal weather. "The day," says the Yorkshire Telegraph and star (now the Sheffield Star) "was as depressing in Sheffield as any remember and the dank and dripping decorations presented a doleful display. (In fact, the Star was so upset it permitted itself a misprint and referred to an "odleful" display,) All over South Yorkshire earlier rain had ruined the Coronation decorations, but the people turned out early on Coronation morning to replace the sodden bunting.
As always the Police Courts mirrored the sadder side of the day. A drunk picked up in the street, was subjected to a mild fine. No doubt the magistrates were moved by his explanation; "I came from Huddersfield to Sheffield to see if the decorations there could beat Huddersfield's and I got one or two over the odds." He was a native of Sheffield -- local loyalty dies hard.
For the first time the Coronation procession in London was televised and Sheffield churches relayed the broadcast from Westminster Abbey where the city's Lord mayor (Councillor Mrs A E Longdon) was the only woman Chief Magistrate present. Once again an illuminated tramcar trundled through the streets and, once again , Ireland was moved to a different kind of demonstration. Not content with posting up proclamations, disaffected elements in Dublin blew up King George II's statue on St Stephen's Green with a land mine. Mussolini's Italy, too, took a poor view of the crowning. Rome newspapers reported that the Coronation had been one long chapter of accidents. The hospitals were said to be over flowing with wounded. "Brawls, arrests and popular manifestations against British imperialism" were described as being a feature of the proceedings in London. Editors of totalitarian newspapers had already realised that it was safer to produce daily works of fiction, facts being unpopular with their masters. Undisturbed by the brawls and arrests, the citizens of Sheffield and Yorkshire went about their celebrations. Three hundred feet below ground at Gaping Ghyll on Ingleborough, a gathering of intrepid pot-holers listened to the Coronation broadcast; a commendable effort to avoid the crowds! At the other extreme, the Union jack was planted on the summit of Kinderscout in the Peak District on Coronation eve.
The advertising columns of the Sheffield newspapers contain no announcements of balls or soirees, but Stainless Stephen, the Sheffield comedian was photographed receiving a crate of mineral water with which he declared that he proposed to celebrate the Coronation.
Another notable Sheffielder in the news was Mrs, Mary Ann O'Conner, a 69 year old widow who had lost three sons in the 1914-18 war. Mrs O'Conner went to London as the guest of the Sheffield telegraph, on her return, the elderly Cinderella declared that "it seemed like a dream."
Sheffield was awakened on Coronation Day by the thunder of a Royal Salute of 31 guns in Norfolk Park. At noon this was repeated by Territorials in Barkers Pool.
Perhaps it was the bad weather, with rain clouds obscuring the sky, that misled the astrologer of the Yorkshire Telegraph and Star who forecast that "the first few years of the reign would appear to be the most anxious." The entire reign of George VI was to be fraught with anxieties -- it was the unflinching manner in which he shared these dangers and perils of his people that so endeared his late Majesty to the nation.
In times no less troubled, his daughter now comes to the throne. Sheffield will take her and the Duke of Edinburgh to its loyal, industrious heart. Once again there will be gifts for school children and once again, no doubt, an illuminated tramcar. This is becoming more rare however as more towns dispense with their tramway systems. Somehow an illuminated bus might not be the same thing ! But trams or no trams, the whole country will be united on June 2nd. As, the young Queen Elizabeth dedicates her life to our service, we will all cry -- "GOD SAVE OUR QUEEN"
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