Ready for a right royal do?

Our last royal picnic in the square, celebrating the Queen’s jubilee in June

A certain keen gardener and one-time enthusiastic visitor to Arlington Square has suggested that we all have a picnic together to celebrate his coronation. It would be rude to refuse. So on Sunday 7 May, the day after King Charles III is crowned, we’ll be holding a community celebration lunch in the square. Royalists and republicans are all welcome.

At the last coronation, in 1953, the Ministry of Food granted 82 applications for people to roast oxen if they could prove that by tradition an ox had been roasted at previous coronations. Now, we know that hogs have been roasted in Arlington Square. It happened twice at our Summer Fetes before the council’s Health and Safety rules became so onerous. But sadly we can find no precedent to justify roasting an ox in the square, so you will need to bring your own picnic.

We’ll provide tables and chairs and festoon the square with Coronation bunting. We’ve booked our favourite Dixieland musicians the Rhythm Kings to entertain us, and there will be games and races for the young ones. You just need to bring your food and drink and your liveliest and friendliest community spirit.

We need some volunteers to help with the children’s games and races. Let us know if you can help out by contacting us at arlingtonassociation@ hotmail.co.uk.

And if you are willing to help us set out the tables, chairs and bunting, you can lend a hand in the square from 10am. We will be royally grateful. OBEs all round (Order of the Blessed ’Elpers).

Crowning glory

How creative can a crown get? We hope to find some answers at our Royal Lunch when we’ll be judging Arlingtonia’s most creative crown. All ages can enter (there are two categories: seven and under and eight and over) and you must be able to wear your crown without having to use your hands!

If you’re looking for Royal examples to follow, the King will be coronated with the 17th-century St Edward’s Crown (right) of solid gold decorated with 400 gemstones, including rubies, garnets and sapphires. It is so heavy he will only wear it when he is actually being crowned. When he leaves the Abbey he’ll be wearing the lighter Imperial State Crown, another solid gold job, set with 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls and four rubies.

Yours does not need to be quite so lavish, but we won’t be giving any prizes to unadorned McDonald’s crowns – although we hear that the King does actually own a McDonald’s cafe. The Crown Estate owns the Banbury Gateway Shopping Park where Ronald McD has a branch.