This picture was taken at the dawn of the second Elizabethan Age, which has now come to a close with the sad passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II. It was on Saturday June 6 1953 of Coronation week that children from Wymondham Junior School at Browick Road under the headmaster Mr. W. C. Bradbury and teachers presented colourful historical tableaux drawn from periods through the country’s history. The event, which had been postponed from the Wednesday because of the weather, followed the “eighth annual sports” on the King’s Head Meadow.

Richard Barham, who hailed from Wymondham but now lives in Old Catton, has helped to identify some of the participants in the picture, which features the tableau of the first Elizabethan Age in Tudor times. In the middle of the front row is Veronica Blake as Good Queen Bess (Elizabeth I), flanked by beefeaters Peter Smith, left, and Keith Lane, while Richard himself, fourth from right in the middle row, is attired as a pedlar. Also in the middle row is Roger Dodman (sixth from left), while among those in the back row are George Bedingfield (far left) and Heather Patrick (third from left), who ten years later was to become Wymondham’s carnival queen. Far right in the front row is Barry Chamberlin. Afterwards the children gave a series of recitals before proceeding on lorries on a tour of the town. They would remember this glorious occasion for the rest of their lives.