What a difference a day makes! The highlight of Hanbury Village’s Coronation Celebrations has to be the glorious afternoon we shared at the Cricket Club on Sunday 8th May with special guests the Mayor and Mayoress of Staffordshire . There were people of all ages from all parts of the parish happy to be out in the sunshine enjoying a free bbq, drinks from the bar, a wonderful selection of donated cakes and competition entries plus a bit of cricket to boot! 

Special mention has to be made of the fantastic Coronation fruit cake made especially for the event by Christine Barnes of Martin’s Lane. Everyone enjoyed a slice to eat there or take home. And there were some spectacular cake entries for best Coronation Cake competition – judged by our very own Prue and Paul aka Nigel and Joanne Storr from New Lodge (Joanne sporting a very impressive Union Jack waistcoat it has to be said). There were tough decisions for our judges to make : Under 17’s winner Kate Allen made a delicious gluten-free cheese cake and the adult’s category was won by Anthony Nicholls with a very creative 3-tier red, white and blue sponge cake, featuring a silhouette on King Charles in icing sugar on the top.

The village looked spectacular with many houses and gardens patriotically decorated and a huge effort made on the bunting all across the village by Jolyon MacClaine leading a Bunting Party of willing volunteers.

All the children (did you know we have an incredible total of 64 under 17s?!) in the village received a commemorative mug with a few left over being sold to avid collectors.

And last but not least, if you haven’t seen it yet, is the wonderful Commemoration Bench set on a concrete plinth looking out across the Village Green, the pond and into the wonderful countryside beyond.

All of the above was made possible by the huge efforts of a number of villagers giving up their time to make everything happen, especially to the Cricket Club for agreeing to host the party. Our grateful thanks go to all of you for every contribution you made, large or small. However, it is Joanne and Nigel from New Lodge whose generosity has funded all of this together with a contribution to the mugs from Townlands Trust. We are so very lucky to live in such a warm-hearted community. King Charles would be proud of us!