The Queen's Coronation at the beginning of June, 1953, was celebrated with street parties and neighbourhood events.

The residents of Eelholme and Clock View Streets organised a fancy dress competition and procession round Beechcliffe and Utley, finishing at the Girls' Grammar School sports field.

Here is their Coronation Queen, Diana Atkinson, with her attendants Anne Wilson and Barbara Lund. The photograph has been sent from the Isle of Man by Mrs Mona North, whose daughter was one of the fancy-dress characters in the background.

Typically the afternoon and evening of Coronation Day itself were marred by rain, driving many planned al fresco festivities indoors, but this did not wholly dampen local spirits like the hundred or so residents of Ebenezer Square at Ingrow who tucked into "25 cockerels, supplemented by hams and tongues." A fun-fair in Victoria Park was opened by the Mayor, Alderman J Procter, who had a ride on the Big Wheel!