Page 837 - Reading Mercury

Mr. Selby and Mr. Green, Instructors at the Army Catering Corps Training Centre
Aldershot, and Mr. Fox, of Manchester, the Mayor, Cllr A.T. Ilott, Cllr. S.L. Bowyer
and others all took a hand in the roasting. Cooking was completed at mid-day and by
4 o’clock, the published time for carving, the Market Place was thronged with well
over 1,500 people.
The Mayor, carefully directed by the chefs, carved the first portion to the
accompaniment of three lusty cheers from the crowd, and then, and having procured a
piece of bread from the W.V.S. servers he smilingly proceeded to enjoy the first slice.
The deputy Mayor was handed the next portion and then for the next 90 minutes
nearly 2,000 pieces were served to the queue, most of whom purchased a slice of
bread and a picnic plate for threepence. At the conclusion of the carving there were
many dog owners queuing for the bones.
A large proportion of the “diners” wrapped up their slices of meat and took them
home but a few, like elderly Mr. and Mrs Hunt, of Binfield Road, Bracknell, enjoyed
theirs on the spot. Mrs. Hunt remembered as a tiny child, being left in the care of
friends inside the Wokingham Town Hall at Queen Victoria’s Jubilee while her
parents went into the Market Place to enjoy the roast ox dinner served on that
occasion. Both she and her husband are natives of Wokingham being born in the
North Ward of Forest Road and only moving to Bracknell two years ago.
Just as the last dish had been washed up, a man dashed into the Market Place to
know if he was in time for a slice. Told by Cllr. Bowyer that it was all over, he
replied, “We heard about it in London this afternoon and dashed down in the car right
away.”
Throughout the afternoon music was played by St. Sebastian’s Parish Band. In the
evening an even larger crowd assembled at Langborough Road Recreation Ground for
the lighting of the scouts’ beacon and bonfire sing-song which followed.
A guard of honour of guides and scouts led by District Commissioner, J. Freeland,
welcomed the Mayor and Mayoress. Within a few minutes of the Mayor lighting the
beacon, a pillar of flame and smoke soared up some 50 feet into the evening sky and
its welcome heat spread over a radius of many yards. Scouts and guides began their
sing-song with “Bring Back my Bonnie to Me” and a number of scouting songs and
rounders. The singing, however, was mainly confined to the scouts, most of the
spectators contented themselves with watching the crackling bonfire.
Young people of the town accompanied by the St. Sebastian’s band then left the
recreation ground to march in torchlight procession round the town returning later for
the firework display. By the time the first grand volley of red, white and blue rockets
leapt into the air, the spectators had increased to some 2, 000.
Fine display of set pieces, rockets and roman candles followed, ending just before
midnight with the illuminated words, “God Save the Queen” and an accompanying
volley that must have been heard all over the town. The long-awaited Coronation
festivities of 1953 were really over.
The previous evening, Friday, about 250 people attended the Coronation concert in
the fine concert hall of the Wokingham Secondary Modern School. Here a programme
of concert music was given by the augmented orchestra of the Berkshire String
Players, led by Ray Monkcom and conducted by Robert Noble, Director of Music for
Berkshire, and singing by the Wokingham Madrigal Society was conducted by Clive
Penman.
The concert opened by the Trumpet Voluntary played by Bernard Brown and was
th
followed by a Coronation Anthem of the 17 century sung by the Wokingham and

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