KING CHARLES III – CORONATION

After months of preparation, and some seriously hard work by the Planning group, Sunday 7 May dawned bright and sunny, and after days of rain, we felt as though we had been blessed by the weather Gods!  The marquees were up (and thanks must go to Ray Newton and his team of “volunteers” for doing a sterling job), the bunting was up and looking magnificent, and the stage was set for an incredible celebration of the Coronation.

The villagers of Monk Fryston and Hillam (and several from further afield) turned up in their droves to make this an occasion to remember.  There was musical entertainment from Harriet Dixon, Sax Forte, Vintage Mollie and Riff Raff, there was a bouncy castle and a children’s entertainer, there was face painting and a fancy dress parade and competition, where we had a fabulous array of Kings and Queen’s, Prince’s and Princesses, all ably brought together by our wonderful Compère for the day, Jayne Charles, looking resplendent in her Union Flag dress and red, white and blue wig!

Our plan was to provide a street party with afternoon tea, and after several worrying days of wondering whether we would be able to purchase 355 scones, we actually ended up with a surplus!  Making sandwiches (with 5 different fillings) took 7 ladies 3.5 hours to make, but right on time at 2.15pm, a parade of people bearing huge platters of sandwiches, sausage rolls, and cake stands groaning with cakes and scones, were delivered to our tables of waiting guests.

Aspire Dance School gave us a dancing display, the Scouts were offering the chance to throw tomahawks and play soft archery, the Brownies were selling soft drinks and sweets and Nigel Spofforth and his team was overseeing the bar.  One of the highlights was the rendition of ‘God Save the King’, beautifully signed by the Brownies who had been practising British Sign Language for weeks and executed it wonderfully on the day.

We had arranged a pizza van in case anyone was still hungry, the coffee van to provide an alternative to alcohol, and hot dogs, and when the ice cream van arrived at 3.45pm, one ding of his music had people hurrying to queue up!

There are a lot of people who should get a mention as being an integral part of making this event the success it was, too many to mention, but thanks must go to Ray Newton (marquees), Nigel Spofforth (Bar), Trisha Birch (all things money), all the ladies who helped make the food, Renny England (bunting in the villages) and finally Robin Parkin, who, as Chair of the Community Association, does a fantastic job of rallying the troops and always gets stuck in where he is needed, which was just about everywhere from day one of the planning!

Finally, my thanks go to Karen and her team at the Post Office for selling the tickets for us, and also donating all the sausage rolls and several loaves of bread on the day.

I think we can say that we well and truly celebrated the King’s Coronation in the only way Monk Fryston and Hillam know how!  It was fabulous!

Sally Whittingham, Planning Group Lead