Do you recognise any of these? Amazing royal souvenirs found in North East homes

The area’s crockery cabinets are clearly overflowing with jubilee mugs, collecting dust but also marking moments in history when the monarch’s milestones coincide with memorable local events such as street parties and pageants.

Now, it has to be said that not every reader of Memories has mastered the art of taking in-focus pictures, but many thanks to everyone who tried.

We’ll start with the Coates family of Croft-on-Tees who have a complete set of Elizabethan mugs: 1953 Coronation, 1977 Silver Jubilee, 2002 Golden Jubilee and 2022 Platinum Jubilee (above).

Not everyone has such conventional souvenirs. “I have a 275ml bottle of Royal Wedding beer produced by Camerons Brewery of Hartlepool for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer – never opened!” says Gillian Hunt, whose mother was at Darlington Girls’ High School in 1937 and so was presented with a commemorative mug which includes the town’s coat of arms.

Gillian also says: “A friend in Stockton recalls the Queen’s visit in 1956 when she was a child. All the children lined up by the roadside and were given a souvenir mug and toothbrush.”

This must be the holy grail of local royal souvenirs: a 1956 Stockton souvenir.

An attractive Silver Jubilee mug owned by Alex Allender, who also has a 1953 Coronation plate. Does the bottom of the mug indicate there was once a souvenir saucer as well?

On Thursday, The Northern Echo is producing an 80-page souvenir supplement of its own, containing pictures of the Queen’s many visits to the region in the course of her 70-year reign, and her first to the Tees Valley was in 1956 when the authorities were surprised that an estimated 250,000 people turned out to see her in Stockton and Middlesbrough.

There was an official event at Stockton Town Hall with throngs of adults and children lining the extremely long high street. The Echo’s report of the visit notes that mugs and toothbrushes were given to the children – how we would love to see one!

IN Christina Lupton’s cabinet, there are two royal souvenir mugs that she inherited from her mother, who lived at Coatham Mundeville.

One is in 1953 coronation mug, and the other is a 1935 Silver Jubilee mug (above). George V was the first monarch to hold a Silver Jubilee commemoration for 25 years on the throne. May 6, 1935, was a bank holiday and the large crowds in London and the large number of events across the country suggested that the monarchy was surprisingly popular with the people.

The king’s eldest grand-daughter, Princess Elizabeth, just nine, was involved in the celebrations, taking at least one public carriage ride with her father.

This jubilee was also the first to have a celebratory dish invented for it: Jubilee Chicken, which was mayonnaise with curry powder. The recipe was refined in 1953 to create Coronation Chicken.

IN 1953, Darlington council undertook to give every child in the borough “an earthenware handled beaker bearing on one side an authorised Coronation emblem and, on the other, a reproduction of the Darlington Coat of Arms”, according to the town’s brochure, which is now part of the library’s display of memorabilia.

So 70 years ago, there must have been about 10,000 of these distributed. This is the rear of one of the survivors, kindly sent in by Gill Wootten (above).

OF all the 2002 Golden Jubilee mugs sent in, this was one of the most interesting, from Gillian Page of Gilesgate, whose son attended Glendene School in Easington Colliery when the Queen visited as part of her national jubilee tour (see Thursday’s supplement). The parish council gave every schoolchild a mug, which has a nice picture of a young queen on the front, but the rear features the council logo of a pitwheel and the Easington hare…

JOHN ASKWITH has his mother’s collection of royal mugs of which the most interesting is probably this one celebrating the coronation of Edward VII in 1902 (above). It looks to have been given out to mark the festivities being held in Willington, and the front of it bears the date June 26.

Edward was due to be crowned on that day, but 48 hours before, he suffered what the Palace statement said was a “recrudescence” of his perityphlitis – which meant his stomach abscess had flared up painfully and he required an immediate operation.

This meant that the first coronation in 64 years had to be postponed at short notice – much to the dismay of heads of state from around the world who had travelled for it, and the royalists who had booked rooms along the route of the parade at great expense.

Edward, 59, was rather rotund due his fondness for fine food and wine and fat cigars.

His surgeons drained his cyst on the table in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace and he was well enough for the coronation to go ahead on August 9. Few of the foreign heads were able to return, and it was too late for the people of Willington to change the date on their souvenir mugs (below).

GEOFF GREGG in Tursdale has the only metal souvenir mug that has been sent in (above), and the enamelling over the tin shows that it commemorates the 1902 Coronation of Edward VII with one of the worst royal poems ever written:

“He’s a symbol of the thing

He’s the king

Britain’s king, one king, our King.

For the crown is our communion

And the seal of our free union

Is the king.”

Geoff also has a 1911 mug commemorating the coronation of George V on June 22 that year (below). Like the 1902 mug, Geoff’s family probably acquired it in Ferryhill.

There were four coronations in the 20th Century. George VI’s coronation in 1937 is the only one we haven’t seen a mug for. Has anyone got one?

SO many people have jubilee mugs, but Paul Evans has sent in a picture of his 1977 jubilee goblet (above). “We also found a commemorative glass bowl from the coronation of 1953,” says Paul, sounding a little surprised at what souvenirs his family have managed to collect. “They belong to my parents, Peter and Dinah Evans of Darlington, and they keep them in a cabinet which is often referred to as 'the museum'!”

“I HAVE recently been gifted this gorgeous 1953 mug (above) from my Auntie Win, who received when she was eight and living in Swindon Square, Sunderland,” says Vickie Pybourne, who lives in Wolsingham, as does her aunt, Win Sewell. “She was given it by Sunderland council when she attended a street party. Her mother kept it safe until she passed, and now it will be treasured and kept safe until I pass it onto someone – it is too precious to have my daily cuppa out of.”

Any other interesting royal souvenirs? We'd love to see them - and please don't forget the toothbrush! Email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk