Majesty and the Movement - Marking the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

In the lead-up to the June bank holidays set to mark the Monarch's unrivalled seventy years as Queen, lots of businesses are marketing branded products, and even souvenirs. This includes co-operatives who will be marking the occasion in their own ways. 

For the Heritage Trust, it will mean closure on those days... but we have been helping some co-ops look back at the ways in which royal occasions were marked in the past.

Co-operatives approached relationships with royalty a little differently to capitalist businesses because they were set up by and for people looking to find a way to operate around the establishment and privileged classes. The ‘Pioneers’ of local societies in the regions were poor people, without access to money to invest or the right to vote. Wanting to use co-operation to improve their prospects, for these people, the value of aristocracy, a ruling class headed by a Monarch, was mostly at odds with what it meant to be a co-operator.

Not all co-operators would have been completely anti-monarchy; but shared values and concern for the needs of communities meant that societies concentrated on the needs of their members over celebrating the ascension of a new Monarch to the throne, or the anniversary of a long reign.  Blackpool Society made a (silent) feature film to mark its own Golden Jubilee on 12^th October 1934 where two of their founder members, James Leach and James Horne spoke to a crowd of thousands. The film can be seen here: 

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-blackpool-co-operative-society-ltd-stone-laying-ceremony-12th-oct1935-in

Most societies were frugal when it came to designing branded goods or designing premises and tended to keep decoration very plain and ‘ordinary’ on purpose so that members would understand that their dividend funds were not being wasted on things like decorations. There were relatively few royalty themed ranges and the products didn’t carry the royal seal of approval. Businesses didn’t have a long history of making commemorative products because few Monarchs were on the throne for long enough to celebrate a jubilee. This June Queen Elizabeth II is the only Queen or King to have marked four jubilees (silver, golden, diamond and platinum). Earlier in our history, long reigns were not celebrated publicly and only with Queen Victoria’s reign were these anniversaries marked with parades, marching guards and souvenirs.

Co-ops did have special committees and plans to mark 100 years or more of their own trading with galas and parties for the members along with souvenir gifts of printed crockery and celebration tea and cake. Our collections contain numerous examples of these items, which are sometimes all that is left of a once thriving independent local society which either ceased altogether to exist or merged into bigger societies like Co-op Group, Central England, Heart of England, Midcounties, East of England, Chelmsford Star, Lincolnshire, Southern and Scotmid.

In a more commercialized age, producers made special products like biscuit and tea tins to mark the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. The Silver jubilee in February of 1977 brought with it special items made just for the party, including the ‘Co-op’ strawberry flavoured fizzy drink in a tin, called ‘Jubilade’ made for CWS. A number of nostalgic websites refer to this drink and childhood street parties and the taste has been described as...

“A fat little tin filled with strawberry flavoured drink, yet you revel in the crude sunburst coloured glory” (1)

There were other branded items such as two-pence ‘jubilee matches’, biscuits, crisps and even a shoe polish, marked with the logo of a royal silver trumpet and Union colours (red white and blue). Not every member approved of these efforts however: The Glasgow Co-op (which later became part of SCWS and The Co-op Group) displayed a large poster of the Queen in its flagship store in 1953 for the coronation and was threatened by a caller upset about the image of the Queen displayed in the window – calling her a ‘foreign monarch’ . The caller was particularly objecting to the use of the title Elizabeth ‘II’. Using II and not I suggested that Elizabeth Tudor had been the rightful Queen of not just England but also Scotland before her cousin James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603. A reminder of the campaigns for independence within the United Kingdom even at a time of celebration. 

Despite the challenge of the idea of monarchy in a modern world, support and enthusiasm for the crown tends to be at it’s highest at key events like Royal Weddings and Jubilees.

The traditional use of ‘street parties’ to mark these enjoyed a peak when most people still didn’t have cars and colour televisions, and were less likely to move away from where they were brought up. The cultural shifts of the 1990s and 2000’s meant people were less likely to know their neighbours well enough to organize a party, but there were still plans in place for the Golden and Diamond Jubilees in 2002 and 2012.

As convenience community stores, food retail co-ops could offer a range of products themed to suit the modern street party and the Co-op Group offered a chance to ‘win 100 Diamond Jubilee street parties’ with a national fund of £10,000  for community groups who could apply for a party pack of flags, bunting and paper plates along with food and drink vouchers to help their neighbours celebrate in style. No Jubilade on offer this time - but applications with the most ‘heartfelt and community focused’ plans would win.

Did you have a street party in 2002 or 2012? Did you get help from your local co-op to put it on? If you did, we want to hear from you and record your experiences as they are vital snapshot of modern life and links to the co-op movement. Contact us at [email protected]

 

 Ref 1: Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley and Alex Morris: More B^*$ocks to Alton Towers (2008)