Jolly Coronation Bash
28 April 2023
People all over the UK and the Commonwealth have been busy gearing up for a weekend of celebrations surrounding the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, 6th May.
On Sunday 7th a special Coronation Concert will be staged and broadcast live at Windsor Castle by the BBC. The centrepiece, Lighting up the Nation, will see the country join together in celebration as iconic locations across the UK are lit up using lasers, drone displays and illuminations.
The Coronation Big Lunch, at which neighbours and communities are invited to share food and fun together, will also take place across the country on the Sunday. And Monday 8th has been designated as an extra bank holiday with members of the public invited to take part in The Big Help Out, encouraging them to volunteer and support projects being undertaken in their areas.
JCB says that thousands of its employees are preparing to mark the Coronation with a company-wide ‘street party’ and is treating more than 5,500 personnel at all its UK factories to a two-course celebration lunch next week.
The Big Coronation Lunch is being staged at the manufacturer’s plants in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham over four days next week – Monday 1st is the May Day bank holiday.
JCB Chairman Lord Bamford said: “The Coronation really is a momentous event in our country’s history and an opportunity for all of us to come together and mark it as a team in traditional street party style.”
Factory restaurants are being decked out with red, white and blue bunting and balloons ready for classic British cuisine to be served on traditional street party trestle tables.
On the menu will be fish and chips, sausage and mash, a special Coronation Chicken pie or a celebratory afternoon tea. A regal fruit crumble and trifle will be offered as dessert.
Over the course of the four-day street party, staff expect to prepare and serve almost one tonne of potatoes, 172kg of chicken, 293kg of fish and 125kg of sausages.
Picture shows young JCB personnel preparing for the Big Coronation Lunch including from left: Ella Taylor, Libby Hodge, Qazi Mustafa, Jimmy Hopkinson, Rebecca Brooks and Sean Tucker.
