The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

Bradwell, known for throwing great celebrations, celebrated in style for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. The streets were decorated and the local community held processions, parades and street parties.

Wood Street won the prize for ‘best decorated street’ – a prize much deserved as they had missed out during the previous Coronation for being only ‘part decorated.’ This was a bit unfair as the ‘partly decorated’ aspect was due to only having homes on one side of the street.

Sadly Coronation Day itself brought heavy rainfall and residents struggled to stop the decorations from becoming too limp. However, it didn’t stop Wood Street from celebrating with a splendid meal arranged by the ladies of the street. This was followed by fun and races for all in Packers field.

Some lovely postcards (see photos) have been found with photograhs of the Bradwell celebrations. However, despite the photograph clearly showing the Coronation celebrations, the printed text on the other side is strangely from the Institute of Electrical Engineers inviting people to a lecture on the ‘Commissioning of a Nuclear Power Station’ in 1963!

(written with help from ‘New Bradwell, The Unique Community – Sylvia Mead)