Fascinating look back at Coronations from the past in Ryedale

They include fascinating pictures painted by local artist George Nicholson they show how Malton celebrated the Coronation of Queen Victoria in June 1838.

An article in the Yorkshire Gazette records a public procession around the town and ‘a grand triumphal arch erected… a little above the Talbot hotel, which was adorned with flowers, evergreens, and the leaves of trees’. The article also records that ‘ the national Anthem and Rule Britannia were sung by the company in a very beautiful manner previously to and at the close of the procession’; after which ‘About one o’clock in the afternoon, many hundreds of both men and women sat down to an excellent and substantial dinner provided in the Market Place, consisting of roast beef, plum pudding, (and) ale’.

The watercolour paintings will be on display at Malton Museum until June.

The coronation of George VI and his wife, Elizabeth, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and as emperor and empress of India took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Wednesday 12 May 1937. George VI ascended the throne upon the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII, on 11 December 1936, three days before his 41st birthday. Edward's coronation had been planned for 12 May and it was decided to continue with his brother and sister-in-law's coronation on the same date.

In 1937, the 11 year old Princess Elizabeth had watched her father, King George VI, crowned in the elaborate ceremony and 16 years later on 2 June 1953, her own official coronation was to take place.

Coronations have been held at Westminster Abbey for 900 years and The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was to follow suit. But the Coronation of 1953 was ground-breaking in it's own right – the first ever to be televised, it was watched by 27 million people in the UK alone and millions more audiences around the world.

Here are a selection of photos from Gazette & Herald readers.