Clitheroe Coronation Procession (1911)

Lancashire bands and Beefeaters celebrate the crowning of King George V.

The coronation of George V on 22 June 1911 was marked by festivities throughout Britain, although some towns were more flamboyantly royalist than others. In Clitheroe, Lancashire, the proceedings seem relatively restrained. A procession of Sunday school children in pretty frocks and bonnets sits rather incongruously with fancy dress clowns and smartly-dressed gents bearing furled-up umbrellas.

Interestingly, part of Clitheroe's Whitsuntide Procession in 1913 was filmed by Mitchell and Kenyon from an almost identical camera position, close to the railway line at Bawdlands, and many of the costumes and banners appear in both films. It's possible, therefore, that sequences from the Whitsuntide Procession were incorrectly labelled as being part of the Coronation film; certainly, the lack of festive bunting and the solemnity with which the children process through the streets lend weight to this interpretation.