QUEEN VICTORIA`S JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS

On Tuesday the 21st of June 1887, a beautiful, sunny day, there was great excitement throughout the country when people gathered to celebrate the fact that Queen Victoria had been queen for fifty years. There was to be a great procession through the streets and sports out at Dorfold Hall to mark the occasion. The people had already decided to erect a `free` library as a permanent reminder of the day.

In Nantwich and Acton church bells began to ring at 6a.m. Shopkeepers rivalled one another for who had the best decorations. Union flags were everywhere, as were portraits of Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales and the politicians Gladstone and Disraeli. Coats of arms, including those of the Cholmondeley family, were displayed.

Church services were held in the morning; the sermon dwelt on Victoria`s long reign and the glory of the British Empire.
A bullock was roasted whole in Welsh Row - a water cart laid the dust before the procession arrived.

From noon all thoughts were on the preparations for the procession. By one o`clock nearly 2000 children assembled near the church. They sang the national anthem and `God bless the Prince of Wales` and each group took its place according to a ballot. The order was by religious group after the Nantwich Band that is: Baptists, Congregationalists, Primitive Methodists, Hallelujah Mission, Roman Catholics, Free Church, Wesleyan, Church schools and then private schools. Next came the Hallelujah Mission band, members of: the Oddfellows` Club, Local Board, Beam Heath Trust, Volunteer Fire Brigade, Local Board Fire Brigade,

The long procession walked along Church Lane, Hospital Street, Millstone Lane, Beam Street to Welsh Row. Meanwhile crowds lined the streets and some adults joined at the tail of the procession. Before this the inmates of the workhouse had been given a special dinner of roast beef and plum pudding. Then 41 boys and girls from the workhouse were allowed to take their place immediately after the Nantwich Band. The walk continued all along Welsh Row and out to the field by Dorfold Hall. Another event was when 400 old people were given dinner in the Town Hall.

By 3p.m. the procession arrived at the field and the programme of sports and entertainment began - but not before another 550 children from villages near Nantwich had been admitted. More surprising still, Miss Julia Tollemache of Dorfold Hall invited `boat` people from the canal - about 120 of them - to a dinner.

For nearly six hours there were races, band playing, dancing, acrobats, and a two-man `donkey` which(who) fell off the stage!! The boys won penknives, satchels, fishing lines and rods,cricket bats and stumps and balls. The girls won skipping ropes, workboxes, fancy boxes, and balls. Fire balloons were released.

At 9p.m.the great day closed with a bonfire on Mill island and some rocket fireworks. [For a very full account see the Nantwich Guardian for June 22nd and 25th 1887]

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