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The county’s best party was in Windsor, where the Queen arrived on Jubilee Day 22 June. She alighted at Slough
Station and was driven through Slough and Eton before arriving at the Castle. The Castle and the town were
illuminated and lunch was provided by the Queen for 6000 children. There was a torchlight procession through
Home Park that culminated in the Queen knighting the town’s Mayor.
There were permanent monuments too. St Nicolas’s church in Newbury had a new stained glass window
designed, Reading had a statue of the Queen commissioned to stand in front of the Town Hall and also
built a water fountain in St Mary’s Butts. Windsor too had a statue placed in Castle Hill, with a time capsule
in its pedestal, which contained an example of every coin of the realm.
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Programme for Reading's celebrations of the 1887 Jubilee. (D/EX1248/2)
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Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was celebrated in a similar way. All the towns and villages in the county
held street parties for their inhabitants – Reading even had a week of celebrations. A local businessman
gave Maidenhead its clock tower and Windsor built a new ward for its Infirmary, while in Reading the Queen
Victoria Nursing Institute was inaugurated.
(left) Programme for Windsor's celebration of the 1897 Jubilee. (WI/D15/3)
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