Penny Main

At the time of the coronation I was eight years old and my family lived at 26 York Avenue, Headington in Oxford.

My mother bought a couple of rolls of the special coronation wall-paper, from Wards shop, which had royal blue edging and an embossed royal crown on a cream background. We put some of this each side of our front door – and had to rush out to rescue it when it rained – and the other roll was used as a table cloth for the street party. All of the food was provided by the neighbours from along the street.

The party was actually held in the large front garden of Mrs. Milles who also had the only television in the road. She also had an elderly poodle that stank! For coronation day it was given a special wash and cut, with ‘pom-poms’ on its legs and tail and we kids thought it looked like a cartoon. To make the TV picture bigger a magnifying glass was hung in front of the screen by wires. Before the actual day of the coronation all the children had to go to her house with a cushion and a note of our name to pin onto it. We then knew where to sit and were under strict instruction not to move during the broadcast!

For the tea itself we had meringues filled with ‘mock cream’ made with whipped butter, cornflour & sugar – there was also uncle Bert’s (very popular) pickled eggs. And to drink was bottles of stout or homemade beer or wine (from memory parsnip, lemon & elderflower) – made in a large pottery bowl with the yeast spread on toast.