Past Coronations and Traditional Celebration Arches
Clare Martin
As we celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III this month, we’ll be following in the footsteps of many generations of Great Horwood and Singleborough residents who gathered together to celebrate the coronations of his predecessors.
The first such event we know anything about was Great Horwood’s celebration of King George IV’s coronation on 19th July 1821. As part of the festivities, five Great Horwood labourers asserted an ancient right on Coronation Day to cut down a tree from manorial land and erect it in the village as a ‘Coronation Pole’. The people of Great Horwood undoubtedly gathered at the pole and their celebrations will have included dancing around it. After the festivities, the five men failed to return the oak pole to landowner, New College Oxford. They sold the timber and kept the profits for themselves, for which they were convicted of theft and fined.
The first such event we know anything about was Great Horwood’s celebration of King George IV’s coronation on 19th July 1821. As part of the festivities, five Great Horwood labourers asserted an ancient right on Coronation Day to cut down a tree from manorial land and erect it in the village as a ‘Coronation Pole’. The people of Great Horwood undoubtedly gathered at the pole and their celebrations will have included dancing around it. After the festivities, the five men failed to return the oak pole to landowner, New College Oxford. They sold the timber and kept the profits for themselves, for which they were convicted of theft and fined.
We don't know exactly what Great Horwood's coronation pole looked like but it was probably somewhat similar to this maypole, a predecessor of the traditional be-ribboned poles we're more familiar with.
King Charles III would be glad to know that we’re not asserting our right to chop down a tree to celebrate his coronation. However, on a small scale, we will be continuing another tradition by constructing a celebratory arch. In the past, before busy roads and health and safety rules, towns and villages often constructed large, temporary arches to celebrate coronations and jubilees. Thanks largely to the artistic talents of Alfred Rich, the schoolmaster here from 1892 to 1928, Great Horwood became renowned for the quality and artistry of its arches. The arch to celebrate King George V’s coronation on 22nd June 1911, for example, was ‘pronounced by all to be the best in the district’. It spanned the road by The Swan Inn and included around 200 hand-made paper poppies.
The arch built across Winslow Road, Great Horwood to celebrate the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.
In most places, the practice of constructing such arches died out long ago but, in Great Horwood, the tradition became an important part of our heritage and still continues. The last really big one was the huge construction of scaffolding poles and greenery built for Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. One of the smaller ones was the beautiful, floral one built for the opening of the village recreation ground, Horwood Pece, in 2009. The most recent was built at the entrance of The Green for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Sadly, Her Majesty died before our rescheduled Platinum Jubilee celebrations could take place so we didn’t make the arch we’d planned to.
The opening of Horwood Pece recreation ground in 2009
On Monday 8th May, we’ll be gathering at Great Horwood Cricket Club for an afternoon of mostly free activities and entertainment in celebration of the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. One of the activities Great Horwood Rangers, Guides, Brownies and Rainbows have organised is decorating the celebratory arch. We’ll bring a garden arch and supplies of red, white and blue tissue paper and paper chains. We hope that everyone (adult or child) will join us to make paper chains and flowers and decorate the arch during the afternoon. For safety reasons, the arch will be smaller than its predecessors but it will be special because everyone will have helped to make it.