Alan digs out Coronation souvenirs
As the anniversary of the Queen's Coronation loomed, Alan Heighway of Telford suddenly remember he had some souvenirs of the occasion, and went to get them.
But he encountered a practical problem - which meant he missed the Coronation "deadline."
However, Alan, from St Georges, has now successfully fetched that clutch of old newspapers recording the occasion back on June 2, 1953, and discovered a little surprise among them in the form of a contemporary report of the knighthood for a local hero, the champion jockey Gordon Richards, who was born at Donnington Wood.
"I knew I had got them somewhere, but when I found them I found I couldn't get them out. There was too much stuff on them, so I couldn't do it on the day. I didn't realise I had the Gordon Richards one," he said.
He thinks the newspapers were probably kept by his late gran.
Born in 1947, 71-year-old Alan has a particular memory of watching the Coronation on television.
"I remember watching the Coronation at my gran's shop. She was one of the few people in Madeley who had a television, with a little flat screen.
"Her name was Bertha Heighway and she had the little grocery shop at the bottom end of Madeley in Princes Street. The house is still there, although the shop has long gone.
"We were all sitting inside watching it. She left the curtains open and all the friends at the bottom of Madeley were standing shoulder high in the window watching it."
As for what Alan is going to do with his souvenirs, he said: "Who knows? I'm not going to put them on eBay. Somebody might be interested in them. I shall hang on to them for a while."
