THE 1902 coronation is the subject of a talk by Teesside university lecturer Ben Roberts at Cockerton library on Tuesday. It was supposed to be a minutely planned affair, placing Britain at the centre of a global empire, but on June 24, about 48 hours before the coronation ceremony on June 26, Edward VII suffered an abdominal abscess which, his doctors said, would kill him unless immediately operated on.
So, on a table in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace, a four inch insertion was made in his abdomen, and the coronation in the capital was postponed, although the king suggested that the holiday festivities in the country should go ahead.
It threw the nation into chaos. As the mayor of Darlington, Cllr ED Walker, said: “At the eleventh hour, when we were on the threshold of great rejoicings, a terrible fly should make itself patent in the ointment of the rejoicings.”
The official Darlington coronation programme from 1902, bearing the wrong date. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local Studies
As we shall explore in our special supplement on Saturday, May 6 – Coronation Day – every event in Durham city was immediately cancelled, but other towns pressed on with their sports, tea parties, bonfires and fireworks – although many had a dampened, subdued atmosphere.
In Darlington, the mayor’s difficulties were compounded because he had already started to distribute to children the 10,400 medals he had knocked up celebrating the coronation – with the June 26 date on them. He had also presented a slightly different medal to councillors and leading council officials, although it too had the wrong date on it.
There must surely be some of these medals still hidden away in drawers. Do you have any family souvenirs from the 1902 coronation – we’d love to see them.
An Echo drawing of the children's medals that the Darlington mayor had distributed with the wrong date of the 1902 coronation on
Darlington’s difficulties were nothing compared to those in other towns as Tuesday’s talk will also mention the financial crisis and even riots following the cancellation.
The coronation of Edward VII went ahead six weeks later on August 9.
Tuesday’s talk at Cockerton starts at 11.30am. Tickets can be booked for £3 via the Eventbrite website, although there may be some spaces on the door. Call 01325-349630 for further information.
SEE MORE: GREAT PICTURES SHOW HOW DARLINGTON COMMEMORATED PREVIOUS CORONATIONS
SEE MORE: AMAZING PICTURES OF WHEN COOLING TOWERS AND CHIMNEYS DOMINATED DARLINGTON'S SKYLINE
OUR researches this week for the forthcoming coronation supplement have not gone well because we keep getting distracted.
For instance, in the Echo reporting the cancellation of the 1902 coronation, there is a front page advert, aimed specifically at “ladies”, for Holmes & Richmond’s Golden Orange Marmalade made at the Steam Works in Stephenson Street, Darlington.
“No tea table should be without this delicacy,” says the advert.
Every Memories morning starts with marmalade so this tickled our tastebuds.
Marmalade is originally a Portuguese delicacy, marmelo, in which quinces were boiled with water and sugar and then set.
The British liked it, especially as it took the bitterness off Seville oranges, and it particularly caught on in Scotland. There are two theories why: firstly, Mary, Queen of Scots had a bad headache – “Mary est malade”, said her staff – which cleared when she ate some orange preserve and, secondly, a cargo of oranges was shipwrecked off Dundee and to mask their salty taste, the locals turned them into marmalade.
There is not a golden shred of truth in either tale, but never mind. It was, though, the Scots that made marmalade a breakfast delicacy whereas the English ate it in the evening – the Holmes & Richmond advert referring to a “tea table” must suggest it was to be eaten in the afternoon in Darlington even in the early 20th Century.
Stephenson Street. Image: Google StreetView
The Steam Works in Stephenson Street must refer to the big warehouse, in the shadow of North Road station, which has recently been converted into 23 flats. Holmes & Richmond perhaps located deliberately close to the railway so that they could easily import wagonloads of oranges to turn into marmalade.
We’d love to know more about this fruity, sticky story: can you tell us anything about the warehouse in Stephenson Street, and what industries it used to house, and can you tell us anything about Holmes & Richmond’s marmalade malarky?
Seville Orange Marmalade
Recipe from the County Durham WI Cookery Book printed in about 1970. Recipe submitted by Castle Eden WI:
Ingredients: 5 large Seville oranges, 1 sweet orange, juice of 2 lemons, 3lb preserving sugar, 5 pints of water
Method: Cut oranges and put through a mincer, add water and soak overnight. Next day, boil slowly until tender, about 2 hours, before adding sugar and lemon juice. Stir until all sugar is dissolved then boil quickly. Test on saucer for setting. When it wrinkles it is ready for potting. Tried and found successful (suitable for elderly persons).
A hint for marmalade making from Whitburn Colliery WI: Boil skins, when quartered, for a few minutes, and it will be found they will be easier to cut, and do not take so long to soften when boiled with pulp.
READ MORE: THE MYSTERIES OF THE GURU OF BLACKWELLGATE AND THE STORY OF PETER THE PARK PENGUIN
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