A right old BRITISH knees-up!

Nothing brings the country together like a royal occasion

- ASHLEIGH PAGE.

‘WE FELT SO CONNECTED ON THAT SPECIAL DAY ’

Carol Howarth, 75, lives at Emmaus House, Harrogate, a care home run by Pilgrims’ Friend Society, and remembers watching the coronation of the late Queen on 2 June 1953. Twirling around in my Sunday best with my older sister Val, then four, we were giddy with excitement for the day ahead. After a few days laid up in bed, both of us struck down with chicken pox, we were finally recovered with just a smattering of red spots left on our arms and legs.

Now, clad in pretty dresses with frilly, white socks and sandals, our recovery couldn’t have been better timed as it was the day of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation.

It was the first ever televised coronation ceremony, and I was thrilled to be going to my great aunt’s house with my mum and sister, as my aunt had a Bush TV with a nine-inch screen. She was fairly wealthy – her husband, Charlie, owned a factory in nearby Pudsey, Leeds, that made flags and marquees. His factory had made all the union jacks plastering the nearby villages. Uncle Charlie and my dad had taken themselves off to the pub for a drink while we decorated my aunt’s garden with bunting and flags.

Historic moments