Stately home enjoys jubilee party

Organ grinder Patrick Cooke entertains visitors celebrating the Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Chatsworth, Derbyshire
2 June 2012

Visitors to the Chatsworth estate have joined in a party atmosphere, while the Duke of Devonshire described his excitement at being the youngest of the Queen's pages at her Coronation in 1953.

A 100m picnic table is set up in the Chatsworth garden and a special Coronation exhibition opened, displaying robes worn by four generations of the Cavendish family at the Queen's Coronation.

Taking pride of place in Chatsworth's grand Painted Hall is the state chariot in which the Duke, his mother, the Dowager Duchess Deborah Devonshire, and his father, the late 11th Duke of Devonshire, travelled to Westminster Abbey in 1953.

The Duke, who was nine years old at the Coronation, remembers the crowds lining the street on the way to the Abbey. He said: "There were lots of people sleeping on the route for two or three days before the Coronation, and they were pleased to have something to look at so they were cheering us as we went by.

"The chariot had been brought down to London specially for the occasion and was being driven by a Derbyshire coachman who got lost on the way to the Abbey. My father, the late Duke, had to stick his head out of the window to try and direct him.

"I was allowed to have sweets for the ceremony as it was such a long day. They were still rationed at the time so this was a real treat. I was allowed to eat them when the television cameras were not on me. I knew when this would be as it was all planned out in the rehearsals.

"They still managed to catch me on camera yawning as it was such a long day."

Hundreds of visitors to Chatsworth joined in the 1950s-style, giant street party in the garden, which had traditional village fete games such as a coconut shy and a test of strength. The long picnic table was filled with visitors enjoying the special day and the dry, although grey, weather.

David Jackson, who lives close to the estate, said he and his wife came to the stately home to celebrate the jubilee and "join in the fun with everybody else."

He said: "It's very special for the Queen, that's why we're participating: just to make fun and have a really happy day."

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