The Jubilee is a time to look back at the role that The Queen has played in the life of the UK and the Commonwealth but it is also an opportunity to look forward.

The Opening of the Ely Jubilee Gardens - A Review


Ely picks up the National Jubilee Beat - more
ELY will be among 150 places nationwide whose Jubilee celebrations will be featured on radio and television as part of the BBC Music Live festivals. BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Look East will reveal to listeners and viewers what the city is doing.
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City of Ely Jubilee Celebrations on June 3rd

Monday 3rd June is themed to celebrate the two Elizabethan ages, with an Elizabethan Fair during the day around the Cathedral, with, among others, falconry displays, travelling players, Elizabethan cookery demonstrations and folk musicians plus lots of stalls selling Elizabethan wares. There will also be a performance of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’by students from City of Ely Community College, a classic car show and for the youngest age group a Teddy Bears’ picnic and story telling.

In addition to this Ely Cathedral will be free of charge and the Stained Glass Museum, which is located in Ely Cathedral, will only charge half price admission on this special day at which they also have organised numerous demonstrations and talks by experts.

In the evening the scene shifts to the present Queen’s reign with an open air concert featuring local bands Blue Suede Ouse, The Guv’nors, T-a-s-h and Blue Gandhi and dancers from Octagon Studios. The evening concludes with fireworks.

but this isn’t all...
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A golden opportunity for a rockin’ good time!!

There’s something for everyone at The Golden Years Jubilee Concert in Cherry Hill Park, Ely on Bank Holiday Monday. Local bands are reliving the past 5 decades through the music of the time and dancers are reminding us all of the dance styles that went with them!

Rock’n’rollers Blue Suede Ouse kick off the fifties with a cracking 10 song set which includes classic tracks such as Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock, Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock and the Eddie Cochran standard C’mon Everybody. Well-known local rockers The Guv’nors cover the sixties and seventies with tracks from the great British sixties luminaries such as the Kinks, Manfred Mann, The Rolling Stones and the Beatles, soul and R’n’B standards like Mustang Sally, The Midnight Hour and I’ve Got My Mojo Working to seventies anthems like Free’s Alright Now and Deep Purple’s Black Night. T-A-S-H bring things closer to home with covers of bands like Blue, Oasis and Stereophonics and the evening comes right up to date with Blue Gandhi, featuring their latest tracks including the brilliant ‘Inertia’.

But of course there are gaps to be filled and between sets Presenter Sue Marchant of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire will be playing selections from all the decades and The Octagon Studio Dancers will also be entertaining with dance styles from each decade and we’re encouraging as many people as possible to dress up in the fashions of their favourite decade to have their photo taken alongside a classic car and maybe win a prize!

The Golden Years is a concert for the whole family no matter what your age, and it’s absolutely free. So come along to Cherry Hill Park, Ely just before 7pm, with a picnic, or get refreshments from the stalls on site (no alcohol, but you can bring your own) for an evening of fun topped off with the lighting of Ely’s official national anchor chain beacon and fireworks at 10.15. Don’t miss it.
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Bringing the Past to Life in Ely

As part of the Ely Jubilee celebrations the City of Ely Community Jubilee Committee is set to organise an Elizabethan Fair in the afternoon of Monday 3rd of June. Apart from many stalls selling Elizabethan wares, a hog roast and music by troubadours and Morris Dancers, the Committee has also contracted several professionals who will re-enact facets of Elizabethan life.

Against the backdrop of one of the most magnificent Medieval buildings in England, Ely Cathedral, there will be a wide range of historical demonstrations. A lace maker is set to work alongside two militia men. Their weapons will be on display and they will demonstrate weapons drill, as well as demonstrate their other know-how, which would belong more to a surgeon or barber if it wasn’t that they are quite useful when you are waging an Elizabethan war.

An Elizabethan hawking party will be re-enacted by two falconers and their birds from the English School of Falconry which is based at the Old Warden Park, near Biggleswade. The birds, Peregrines, Kestrels and possibly a male Goshawk, will be on static display between flying displays.

How gentry and servants would fill their stomach after such a party is demonstrated by Monica Askay, a professional cook who lives in Wilburton and has specialised in food history and historical dishes. “There are several misconceptions about Tudor food. We have images of Tudors ravenously tearing legs off roasted chickens, guzzling them in as messy a manner as possible, but”, so she explains, “table manners were extremely prescribed. You would, for example, only eat what was close to you, or what was passed to you.’

Monica intends to pass quite a number of dishes to her Ely audience on June 3rd. Among others she will bring to sample ginger bread, demonstrate a salat with edible flowers as well as explain and demonstrate the use of typical Elizabethan cookery equipment. For children she will also prepare some hands-on activities, like moulding sugar paste and marchpane (marzipan), and there are jumbles (knot biscuits) to take home and bake with full instructions.

Recipe sheets of the dishes demonstrated will be available and the ingredients used may surprise many, like rocket, which is nowadays quite ‘trendy’. During the Elizabethan period more imports arrived including those from the New World like “love apples” (tomatoes), potatoes and some types of bean. However, these foods were not widely used for centuries. “Sugar, ’tells Monica, “came more within the financial grasp of the gentry and was regarded as a spice. It was used in all sorts of dishes, even “savoury” chicken and fish patés.” Interesting is also the liberal use of spices. Monica: “In the past this has been put down to a wish to disguise tainted meat. This view is now discredited. Spices were considerably more expensive than meat and it is likely their use by the gentry was a way for them to show off their wealth. The quantities used were probably necessary as they were not used as freshly as today and the flavour had probably deteriorated.”

On Cross Green on Monday 3rd of June there will however -even if it isn’t entirely historical accurate- be only full flavour and freshly made Elizabethan dishes, for everybody to enjoy!
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Teddy Bears and Stained Glass enthusiasts(-to-be) celebrate the Jubilee in Ely

There will be something for everybody at the Ely Jubilee celebrations on Monday June 3rd. An Elizabethan Fair, a classic car show, bowls, an open air concert entitled ‘Golden Years’ featuring local bands Blue Suede Ouse, The Guv’nors, T-a-s-h and Blue Gandhi and dancers from Octagon Studios and fireworks.

Two groups in particular will have a truly magnificent time in Ely on June 3rd. For all those aged 0-5 years there will be a teddy bears’ picnic at the Sue Ryder Gardens with stories and action rhymes led by Louise Aldridge, Ely’s children’s librarian. Special guests at the picnic will be a large number of Elizabethan Teddy’s, dressed by the children and the best will win a prize.

Children will also enjoy the special activities organised as part of the day long event in the Stained Glass Museum which is only a few yards from the Sue Ryder Gardens. There will be competitions and activities and there is a special do-it-yourself glass Jubilee Souvenir Kit.

The event at The Stained Glass Museum takes place from 10.30am to 5pm and is entitled “Meet the Royal Ancestors”. It focusses on royal portraits in the Museum’s collection and on the work of a 'Royal Stained Glass Artist' Thomas Willement. In the museum historians will introduce the royal portraits and give short presentations. National experts in glazing, glass-painting and conservation will be demonstrating throughout the day, inside the museum and just outside Ely Cathedral for all the members of the public to enjoy. And for those who want to try the art themselves there are several hour-long painting glass-workshops (£5).

'The day will provide a rare opportunity to meet specialists in this ancient and fascinating art-form and to see stained glass being created,” explains the Curator, Mrs Susan Mathews, who is very pleased to announce that on this special day the museum only charges half price admission.

11.15 am, 1.45pm, 2.45pm
All day Free Admission to the Cathedral in Honour of the Golden Jubilee for Her Majesty the Queen; special Jubilee flower arrangements; brass rubbing, free additional special tours of the Cathedral entitled - A Celebration of the 2nd Elizabethan Age

10.30 am-5pm
'Meet the Royal Ancestors' A special day focusing on royal portraits in the Stained Glass Museum. Painting workshops and children's activities, lectures and demonstrations by national experts. Half price admission. Jubilee Souvenirs!

11am - 7pm
Free Park & Ride at the City of Ely Community College. A classic open top bus travels between the P&R and Market Square

11.45am

Market Square Procession led by Town Crier, School children, Morris dancers to Cross Green
Market Square Classic Car Show - Noon Cross Green Arena Maroon & Bells of St. Mary’s Blessing
Opening by Mayor of Ely

12.15

Palace Green & Cross Green, St. Mary’s Green Start Elizabethan Fair Stalls selling Elizabethan wares, Elizabeth cookery & lace making demonstrations, militia men re-enactment, food stalls, brass rubbing, bowls, puppetry

12.30
Cross Green Arena
The Troubadours
featuring Ely Online Editor Charles Lee the 1st
Ely Cathedral Specially themed Organ Recital for the Jubilee celebrations- free admission


12.45
Cross Green Arena Musical Beacon, a BBC nation wide event

1pm
Cross Green Start Hog Roast

1pm - 3.30pm
Cross Green Arena Falconry, Mummers, Troubadours, Morris Dancers, Militia Men

2.30
Cross Green Arena Start free guided walk featuring houses and places of Elizabethan Ely

3.30pm - 4.15pm
Sue Ryder Gardens Teddy Bears’ Picnic. Stories and action rhymes for 0-5 year olds. Dress your teddy as an Elizabethan and win a prize! Children must be accompanied by an adult.

4pm
Priory Gardens “Romeo & Juliet” performance by City of Ely Community College students

4.30
Ely & local Villages Classic Car procession travelling from Ely incorporating various local villages

4.15 6pm
Sue Ryder Gardens, Ely Jubilee Gardens Cherry Hill Park Ely Military Band Concert 45 minutes Ely Military Band Concert Picnic at Cherry Hill Park

5.30
Ely Cathedral Elizabethan Evensong with specially commissioned anthem sung by the Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge



7pm - 10.15pm
Cherry Hill Park Golden Years - Free Open Air Concert 5 Decades of Music, Fashion and Fun! Concert and Dance Demonstrations featuring local bands Blue Suede Ouse, The Guv’nors, T-A-S-H and Blue Gandhi and dancers from Octagon Studios Presenter BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Sue Marchant Fashion competition: dress up in the fashion of the 50s, 60s, 70s 80s or 90s, dance to the music of the time, have your picture taken by a car from your chosen decade, and win a prize!

10.15
Cathedral’s Octagon Lights will be switched on as Ely’s national anchor chain beacon
Cherry Hill Park Fireworks

 

FINALLY FIREWORKS LIGHT THE NIGHT SKY AND THE ELY BEACON IS LIT