From the first coronation to scholars getting chips
We had some follow-up from readers to our piece last week on the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 and thought we’d share it with you. So, in no particular order …
The first coronation
Reader Mary Coleman mailed in to point out that the very first coronation of a king of England took place in Bath in May 973, that is 1,050 years ago.
“I’m surprised that I’ve seen little in the papers and on TV about this,” she says. “As this is supposed to be the origins of the ceremony in which King Charles and Queen Camilla and all their predecessors were crowned.
“Bath is just down the road from Bristol. I would have thought that Bristol Times would want to do write-up on it.”
Well, it’s complicated, Mary … One reason is that we know relatively little about what actually happened on the day – May 11 973.
The other is that the royal politics of Anglo-Saxon England are fiendishly labyrinthine. So many rulers of so many different kingdoms, and most of those rulers were relatively short-lived and often met a violent end. The whole story is very confusing, but you can always look it up, or ask Wikipedia.
King Edgar, the first king of England to have a coronation. It took place at “aching men’s city”, just along the A4 from Bristol
The king in question was Edgar, or Eadgar, also known as Edgar the Peaceful or Peaceable (because there were no noteworthy Viking raids during his reign) who became king of a unified England at the age of 16 on the death of his brother Eadwig.
He reigned from 959 until his death in 975, so the coronation was actually long after he’d come to power. Some historians claim that he had had an earlier coronation, while some chronicles suggest that he had put it off until he was old and mature enough, or that he was old enough to become a priest.
Either way, it is very likely that the ceremony was intended to get the most powerful nobles and “under-kings” to swear loyalty to him, and to demonstrate his power and legitimacy. He seems to have been a very devout Christian and the ceremony would have been to emphasise the support of the church and, by extension, of God.
Either way, the key thing is that this was not the first coronation in the history of England or anywhere else, but it was the first recorded one of a king of all England.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of writings by various churchmen outlining the key events (as they saw them) of the centuries before and immediately after the Norman conquest of 1066, tells us:
Here was Edgar, of Angles lord, with courtly pomp hallow’d to king at Akemancester*, the ancient city; whose modern sons, dwelling therein, have named her BATH. Much bliss was there by all enjoyed on that happy day, named Pentecost by men below. A crowd of priests, a throng of monks, I understand, in counsel sage, were gather’d there.
(*Akemancester, aka Acemannesceastre and various other spellings, is Old English for “aching men’s city”, because it’s where you went with your aches in the hope that the waters could cure them.)
Two years later he was dead, and he was buried at Glastonbury Abbey.
In later centuries some regarded him as a saint, though his cult never really caught on. One historian suggests that this is because, despite his obvious piety, he was also fond of extra-marital activities, often with nuns.
In 1973, Bath held a big celebration of the 1000th anniversary. This included pageants, concerts, a military tattoo and much else, all the way to a “Georgian Evening” with minuets being danced at the Assembly Rooms, plus a visit from the Queen.
While at the time it was claimed this did wonders for the city’s tourist trade, it went vastly over budget, with Bath City Council’s ratepayers ending up almost £30,000 out of pocket.
Blue Beakers
Something we missed (didn’t know about it, wasn’t here at the time) was pointed out by BT contributor Jonathan Rowe, who has two of them which were presented to his older brothers – blue glass beakers.
These were apparently the official Bristol coronation souvenir handed out to local schoolchildren, though we can’t check as we don’t currently have access to all of the June 1953 back issues of the Post or Western Daily.
Does anyone else remember these? Were your older siblings or parents given one? If so, any chance you could mail us a nice high-resolution photo?
Ham and chips!
Steve Ryan, the historian of QEH school and its archivist sent us scans of the “Programme of Celebration for the Scholars of the School” given by the Old Boys’ Society and which was held at Bristol Zoo on June 30th 1953.
“No expense spared, taking boys to the zoo and giving them ham, chips and bread and butter,” says Steve.
Now anyone who was ever a schoolboy (we can’t speak for the girls) will remember that teenage phase when food of any description was an obsession, but to be treated to ham and “chipped potatoes” (as the programme has it) in 1953 when meat was still on the rations would have been a great treat.
The programme of entertainment included some highbrow songs, ending with everyone singing along to some sea-shanties. Also on the bill was the Bedminster-born actor and broadcaster Hedley Goodall who also taught at St Brendan’s.
Steve Ryan adds: “Hedley Goodall taught me Elocution at St Brendans, not sure his efforts were very successful.”
Goodall’s contributions on the
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day included a bit from Shakespeare’s Henry V, which is just the sort of thing you’d expect a 1950s boys’ school to be treated to.
But he also did a comic monologue titled ‘The Sad Story of Washington Jupp,’ which was particularly appropriate for an elocution teacher, as it’s about a kid who mumbles and how he was motivated to improve his diction.
Read it for yourself if you like at https://tinyurl.com/9tyc6vsd
LAST week we were asking if any readers could identify the street in this picture of 1953 Coronation preparations. John Couch mailed in to say: “I reckon it’s Bedminster, either Catherine Mead Street or Philip Street. There appears to be a large building in the distance which could be Wills in either case.
“Also a light coloured building which could be the Malsters pub if it were Philip Street.”
Now we have another photo of Catherine Mead Street from that time, and we don’t think it’s that one. In the bunting picture, you can see that the houses all have little decorative canopies over the front doors, and they’re not in the CMS photo. So possibly Philip Street, yes. It certainly had terraced houses along both sides back in ’53.
Or maybe some other part of town? There are pics of some streets in, for instance, St Philips, which look a bit similar. Until someone else can put us right it will remain a mystery.