1930s: Right royal knees-up

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Anton Rippon reviews the year 1937 when the Coronation took centre stage.

Troops firing the 31-gun royal salute as part of Derby’s Coronation day celebrations

The Duke of York on a visit to Derby in 1933

Those Derbeians walking along Siddals Road on the morning of Wednesday, May 12, 1937, who hadn’t properly read the previous day’s Evening Telegraph, would probably have been alarmed by a series of loud explosions nearby.

The Telegraph news item they might have missed would have explained all: on Siddals Field, the military were sounding a 31-gun royal salute.

For even if the finer detail might have passed some by, there was surely nobody in Derby who wasn’t aware that this was Coronation day, the moment that the shy, stammering young Duke of York, known to his family as Bertie, would be crowned a reluctant monarch after the abdication of brother, Edward VIII.

In Derbyshire, preparations to mark the Coronation of King George VI, had begun early in the year. Now, there wasn’t a town, village or hamlet in the county that wasn’t celebrating in style as, all across the area, employees enjoyed a day’s holiday, most of them with pay.

In Derby itself, celebrations were held in each of the town’s five parks, every child was presented with a souvenir mug or beaker, blind people were given monetary gifts, and there were street parties, celebrations in church halls, and entertainment of every description.

The streets were bedecked with miles of garlands and bunting, while the religious observances included an impressive civic service at Derby Cathedral.

The actual service at Westminster was broadcast live and, for the first time in history, the people of Derbyshire heard a British monarch speak on the very day of their Coronation.

Many Coronation medals were awarded to local public representatives and members of the police force, permanent memorials were erected in several parts of Derbyshire, and hundreds of Coronation trees planted.

In May, various groups of local people had visited the capital, 400 of them on a special railway excursion organised by the Telegraph.

Back to the day itself, a spectacular military parade involving hundreds of soldiers and ex-servicemen was held on the Derwent Street car park.

Every local regiment, Territorial unit, and old comrades’ association was represented. And, of course, there was that 31-gun salute.

During the course of 1937, Derbyshire welcomed three members of the Royal Family. In April, at Bolsover, the Duke of Kent opened the world’s largest plant for making smokeless fuel.

In November, the Princess Royal paid yet another visit to Derby Races, accompanied by the Earl of Harewood. The royal party, guests of Sir William Bass, were driven to the racecourse from the Midland Station.

And, in February, Princess Helena Victoria, another of Queen Victoria’s grandchildren, came to Derby to unveil the Princess Elizabeth cot, paid for by subscribers, at the children’s ward at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

Another royal connection came at Alvaston, where the branch headquarters of the local British Legion were opened in premises formerly belonging to the London Road Congregational Church.

The king who was never crowned, now the Duke of Windsor, gave permission for the building to be renamed Windsor House.

Coronation year had also seen another period of greater prosperity for local businesses. The Derby and Derbyshire Chamber of Commerce again reported good results for engineering companies, but now local textile manufacturers, especially those engaged in the production of artificial silk, shared in the boom.

Orders connected with the Coronation itself saw annual turnovers grow rapidly.

In engineering, International Combustion made a profit of £170,150, an increase of more than £55,000 on 1936. The company now had enough work on its books to provide full employment for the next two years.

British celanese workers were given a pay rise

This was all good news for workers. British Celanese gave its employees a decent pay rise, as did Rolls-Royce, although a three-week strike by grinders at Royces had resulted in temporary stoppages that affected thousands of other workers there.

And a meeting in Derby in November, between Derbyshire mine owners and the Derbyshire Miners’ Association, agreed on a new wage structure and provision for a holiday savings fund.

In July, there were only 1,903 wholly unemployed in Derby, compared to 10,500 in December 1931.

Derby Corporation was also busy in 1937, approving plans for the new £200,000 Council House, on land bounded by Derwent Street, Corporation Street and the new Open Market, and reporting that work was well under way on the £600,000 plan to improve Derby’s main drainage scheme.

At Burnaston, meanwhile, in one of her last engagements as Derby’s first woman mayor, Mrs Elizabeth Petty cut the first sod on the site of the town’s new municipal airport. Over 138,000 acres, the minimum Air Ministry requirement, were being developed at a cost of more than £20,000. Developments like a fog-landing runway were going to be left for future consideration, but it was hoped that Burnaston House would be converted into a clubhouse or a centre for airmen undergoing training courses.

Other 1937 plans for Derby will strike a familiar chord today. Work on Town Planning Road No 4 – London Road to Nottingham Road – was progressing satisfactorily as Derby pushed on with its ring road. The road would be a dual carriageway, 100ft wide, and open up an area covered by something called the Riverlands scheme.

The town council remained under Labour’s control, but only after polling in 16 wards left them with a majority of just two seats. Labour’s 33 representatives faced 26 Conservatives, four Liberals and one member of the Independent Labour Party.

The new mayor in succession to Mrs Petty was Alderman Edward Ernest Paulson, who had entered the council in 1921.

Labour’s bid to gain control of the county council failed when they lost three seats and their 23 councillors lined up against 47 anti-Socialists.

In September 1937, A F Sidgreaves, managing director of Rolls-Royce, opened a £25,500 extension to Derby Technical College, on Normanton Road. With the opening of the new premises, the old ones, on Green Lane, were given over to the School of Art.

There were also extensions to the DRI – where 40,000 “Coronation bricks”, each bearing the new king’s name, were incorporated into the walls – and a new nurses’ home adjoining the Derbyshire Women’s Hospital in the Friar Gate area.

Arthur Kingscott

Among local deaths in 1937 was that of Arthur Kingscott, of New Sawley, near Long Eaton. Mr Kingscott, who was 74, was one of the country’s best-known football personalities. He had refereed two FA Cup Finals and, for many years, had served as treasurer to the Football Association.

Another great local sportsman to pass away in 1937 was Sir Sydney Herbert Evershed (75). Chairman of the Burton brewers, Marston, Thompson and Evershed, he had captained Derbyshire CCC in 1889 and was, for many years, chairman of the club.

Underlining Derbyshire’s mining traditions – and the dangers therein – there were several pit disasters this year.

In January, at Duckmanton, near Chesterfield, nine men were killed in an explosion at Markham Colliery which was owned by the Staveley Coal and Iron Company.

Some seven men lost their lives following an explosion at South Normanton Colliery in February. And nine men were injured, three of them seriously, when there was an explosion at the coke ovens at Grassmoor Colliery in May.

One worker was also killed, and seven injured, in February when steel blown from a converter at the Parker Foundry on Mansfield Road fell on the men.

In sport, there was a fatality when two cars crashed into a wall during a 12-hour sports car race at Donington Park in July.

On a happier note on the sporting front, Derby County finished fourth in the old First Division, eight points behind the champions, Manchester City, who scored 107 goals and conceded 61 in the process.

Chesterfield were enjoying some rare heady days, playing Second Division football – they finished 15th but were ahead of Nottingham Forest.

Burton Town reached the second round of the FA Cup, beating fellow non-Leaguers, Wigan Athletic, in the process.

For local cinemagoers there was another venue to take in when the £30,000 Cavendish cinema opened on the site of the old Pavilion music hall which had burned down in 1929.

The Pavilion had been erected in 1908 by Offiler’s brewery, who also owned the Cavendish Hotel pub opposite, which they had opened not long before.

As the year ended, many Derbeians looked forward to some LMS railway excursions on New Year’s Day, 1938.

Alas, when the festive fun had ended, along with the rest of Britain, Derbeians were to face months of almost unbearable tension.

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