Invitation to the Coronation Ball
Coronation of Queen Victoria
An Invitation to the Coronation Ball
Anne and I have been waiting patiently for our invitation to King Charles III’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey. It’s beginning to look as if we might have been overlooked, but I thought I would share with you how the Yeates family, of Park Head, Levens, Westmorland celebrated the Coronation of Queen Victoria on 28 June 1838.
The Yeates family never threw any documents out and it has provided a treasure chest of family information. Nowadays, we live in an age of decluttering and you can even get treatment on the National Health Service for “Hoarding Disorder”!
How lucky we are that the Yeates didn’t declutter. I’m sure if I delved again into the box containing the Yeates Papers, I would find the cloakroom ticket for his hat and coat, from the Coronation Ball.
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Whitehall Assembly Rooms, Kendal
A most suitable place for the Coronation Ball. Designed in 1828 by George Webster, it now forms part of the Kendal Town Hall, which was built adjacent to the Town Hall on the left of the picture.
Whitehall Assembly Rooms Kendal
The Coronation in Westminster Abbey
The coronation of Victoria as queen of the United Kingdom took place on Thursday, 28 June 1838, just over a year after she succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 18. The ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey after a public procession through the streets from Buckingham Palace, to which the Queen returned later as part of a second procession.
Planning for the coronation, led by the prime minister, Lord Melbourne, began at Cabinet level in March 1838. In the face of various objections from numerous parties, the Cabinet announced on Saturday, 7 April, that the coronation would be at the end of the parliamentary session in June. It was budgeted at £70,000, which was more than double the cost of the “cut-price” 1831 coronation, but considerably less than the £240,000 spent when George IV was crowned in July 1821. A key element of the plan was presentation of the event to a wider public.
Queen Victoria Coronation
Original Documents
This article has been prepared from the Yeates Family Documents and Diaries, the original copies of these documents have now been donated to the Kendal Record Office and have been made available to the public for viewing or download.
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