ABBEY SEATS AT CORONATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1936, Page 12

ABBEY SEATS AT CORONATION

LARGE STANDS TO BE BUILT. LONDON, March 24. Plans for accommodating the guests in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of King Edward next year have already reached an advanced stage. During the preparations the Dean and Chapter of Westminster will hand over the Abbey to the Office of Works. If the precedent set up by previous coronations is followed a large annexe will be built outside the west door of the Abbey, which will stretch westward to the base of the Crimean monument. There the procession will be marshalled. The outside walls of the annexe built when King Edward VII. was crowned contained niches in which were statues of all our Kings of that name. This feature] may again be included. Inside the Abbey stands will be built on both sides of the nave and in the transepts. There will also be stands on both sides of the sanctuary and above the Chapel of the Kings (the Confessor’s Chapel), behind the high altar. In the middle of the transept crossing a platform and stepped Throne will be built, on which will stand a chair of state. The famous 600-year-ckl Coronation Chair will stand in the sanctuady, and in this the King will be crowned. The seats nearest the Throne will be occupied by the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Officers of Arms.

The Earl Marshal (the Duke of Norfolk) and the Heralds are wholly responsible for the ceremony and for the seating of the people in the Abbey. Only about 10 per cent, of the available seats can be allotted to the general public. The preparations will necessitate the Abbey being closed for some time, hut p. daily service will bo held in the old Chapel of St. Faith at the south end of the transept.

CORONATION ROBE. One of the first robes to be prepared for the Coronation of King Edward VIII. was finished and sent from London to its future wearer recently, writes a London correspondent. With coronet, it cost about £BU. Some of England’s finest craftsmen in velvets, silks, furs and jewels Dad worked lor three weeks preparing the robe for a young peeress. The thick white satin petticoat was heavily sewn with pearls and gold and silver embroidery. Over a dozen girls worked for a week to do the embroidery alone.

The kirtle and train were of deep crimson velvet, edged with ermine. It has taken six months to make the velvet.

Mr Vernon Ravenscroft, of Ede and Ravenscrolt, Court robemakers, said that the rich crimson colour, so deep that it has almost a purple sheen, is dyed specially from a pattern which has been handed dqwn from father to son for generations.

The velvet, woven from a secret specification, is three times as stiff as ordinary velvet. / “The robes must be made to one i attern,” he said. “A baroness is allowed to have a yard of her train sweeping the ground, a viscountess one and a-quarter yards, and so on. In one part of the premises of this firm, which has made robes for nine coronations, overalled women are sowing the Canadian ermine for the robe capes.

In another, cutters who have been with the firm almost as long as Mr R-'x/enscroft himself—he lias been there for fifty-seven years—prepare a duke’s robes from thick brown paper patterns.

Court robemakers estimate that the Ictal cost of the robes worn by peers and peeresses will be about £ 160,000. The Imperial Crown of Britain has gone to the jewellers to be reshaped. With every new reign some alteration is necessary. King George had a slightly smaller head than his father, while King Edward VIII.’s head is longer than King George’s.

It is not necessary for the King to try on the Crown before it is actually placed on his head at the Coronation ceremony. The jewellers are working from a hat-shape of the King, such as batters often use for fitting a customer. The alterations now being made will necessitate re-setting some cf the jewels in the Crown. When the job is finished it will be taken back to the Tower of London until the Coronation next year. {