{"id":49,"date":"2022-06-02T10:58:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T10:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/?p=49"},"modified":"2022-08-23T08:51:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T08:51:45","slug":"royal-reflections-from-the-resp-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/2022\/06\/02\/royal-reflections-from-the-resp-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Reflections from the RESP Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/bradford_timeline\/7344102416\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/7099\/7344102416_e7a9d33f89.jpg\" alt=\"10 - Peers of the realm look on during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey\" width=\"500\" height=\"212\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This weekend sees the culmination of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, and marks her 70<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary as monarch. This event provides us with an opportunity to explore some of the Royal Family related material that can be found in RESP archive recordings.<\/p>\n<p>The RESP archive includes a number of recordings which contain memories of monarchs and royal celebrations.\u00a0 The earliest relates to a recording made in 1975 with 100 year old Granny Blacklock.\u00a0 Recorded by her grandson, Ian Blacklock, and subsequently donated to the RESP, this interview takes us back to Granny\u2019s childhood, in the late 1870s and provides us with some of the earliest recollections we have in the archive. Although not yet available to listen to on the website, there is a published summary on the site <a href=\"https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NavMXC\">https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NavMXC<\/a> and the recording and transcription will be uploaded soon.\u00a0 As a young woman, Granny worked for a family who were based in Manchester for a while and she was taken along to the opening of the Manchester ship canal, in 1894.\u00a0 Queen Victoria was there, and Granny could recall the monarch in her \u2018wida\u2019s weeds\u2019 as she passed quite close by and waved to the crowd.\u00a0 When asked by Ian if she\u2019d waved back, she recalled, \u2018Aye, Ah waived back, aye\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>We then jump to the green at West Barns, East Lothian, 1935.\u00a0 Peter Aitchison, who was a small child in 1935, recalled a cedar being planted to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Mary and King George V.\u00a0 In a moving, informative and often funny interview, <a href=\"https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NJKioW\">https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NJKioW<\/a> Peter mentions this occasion and then adds quickly that he\u2019s always keen to tell people that the tree \u2018wisnae his fault\u2019, a reference, perhaps, to the impressive, or possibly intrusive, size of the tree today!<\/p>\n<p>Other interviewees recall the coronation celebrations in different parts of Dumfries and Galloway.\u00a0 These include Tom Allan, who remembers the celebrations, including pipe bands and bonfires, in Lochmaben <a href=\"https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NQlZWm\">https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NQlZWm<\/a> and Sheila Austin, who remembers the celebrations in the more remote farming parts of the region <a href=\"https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NJLrNg\">https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NJLrNg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>My favourite recollection comes to us from Davie Graham, of Sanquhar, who recalls that only a few people in the town had a television in 1953 and so many, himself included, watched the coronation through a shop window! <a href=\"https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NdQoxV\">https:\/\/edin.ac\/3NdQoxV<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend sees the culmination of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, and marks her 70th anniversary as monarch. This event provides us with an opportunity to explore some of the Royal Family related material that can &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/2022\/06\/02\/royal-reflections-from-the-resp-archive\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[9,11,16,15,14,13,10],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/resp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}