02/06/2022
It’s the and to celebrate, Bath Record Office have shared a story about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee! 👑 In the Bath Chronicle for 17th June 1897 an announcement listed the arrangements for Jubilee Day on the twenty-second. To celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee the town would be decorated, people fed and processions held.
After a 21-gun salute at 6.30am, the Abbey bells would ring at 7am, so I hope nobody had planned on a lie-in that morning. The Council, Magistrates and Clergy of the city were to process to the Abbey for a thanksgiving service at 10.30am, after which they were to set off in procession to Henrietta Park. This would include police, fire service and children, all led by the Volunteer Band and even Laura Place looked full and festive with the fountain full of flowers and crowds cheering the procession.
After the formal processions, everything relaxed a bit. Bullocks would have been roasting over open fires since early morning, and tickets had been handed out to the citizens of Bath for their share of the bounty. The aged poor had a sit down meal at the Drill Hall on Lower Bristol Road. In the afternoon the children, who had been given the week off school, were to assemble in Royal Avenue before marching to the Middle Common for afternoon tea and entertainments. There were sports scheduled for the Recreation Ground in the afternoon for the enthusiastic, and the evening was planned to start with a balloon ascent and finish off with a fireworks display at Sham Castle.
The whole town would have looked very festive with swags across Milsom Street and flowers all over George Street. Streets around the city and villages would have been full of fluttering bunting and people dressed up for the events taking place in halls and schools around the district.
Images: Bath in Time and Bath Record Office (Archives and Local Studies for Bath and North East Somerset).
