Organisers of a huge street party in Sutton say the King's Coronation has been a great chance to celebrate their "tight-knit" community. Celebrations have been taking place across Nottinghamshire to mark the historic occasion, though the day of the coronation service itself on Saturday (May 6) saw some celebrations cancelled due to heavy rain.
But Sunday brought clear skies and sunshine and several Nottinghamshire roads were closed as communities hosted street parties. One road decked out in bunting was Redcliffe Street in Sutton, where chief organiser Sam Ferguson, 44, has been busy arranging their party since February.
She said: "We start talks with the council in February about shutting the road off, our decorations are handmade and we've got a jumble sale, bake sale and plant sale today - so there is a lot of work that goes into this. We all have our individual views on the monarchy, but we put those aside because today is really about celebrating our community.
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"There's two lads playing football who both live on the street, but they didn't know each other before today, so we're winning already." As part of the Redcliffe Street party, funds were being raised to go towards a new sensory room at the local Dalestorth Primary and Nursery School, with Sam Ferguson estimating that around £200 had been raised.
Also raising funds were Lynne Weston, 78, and Janina Driscoll, 49, who were from the Meristems Gardening Group. The group meets at the Long Reign Allotments every Tuesday, with people of all abilities being invited.
Lynne Weston has lived on Redcliffe Street for 50 years and speaking about the party, she said: "You do find nowadays that a lot of people don't know their neighbours, so it's lovely to do things like this and you've got to credit Sam because she is so community-minded. We're trying to come up with more ideas like this now so that we don't lose this sense of community, we did this for the jubilee last year and that was really well attended."
Another one of the party organisers was Kelly Buxton, 40, who has lived on the street for 15 years. She said: "We're a really tight-knit community and the coronation is just a good excuse to celebrate that and to try and continue it. I love it here and I think covid brought everyone on this street much closer together."
Elsewhere, there's been a good turnout at Tollerton's King's Coronation Street party. A spokesperson said: "Tollerton's coronation party looks to be going deep into the evening, with a fantastic turnout, some lovely steam engines, and a brilliant Ceilidh band to bring the community together. Tollerton Village Fayre team and The Air Hostess at Tollerton worked extremely hard to put this event together for Tollerton Residents, and the people of Tollerton made it a celebration we will never forget."
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