CORONATION Day was marked by a staggering 103 official events in the towns and villages of East Lancashire.

And a prominent feature of the festivities were public television screenings as cameras filmed a Royal event for the first time.

Estimates suggest that 20 million people huddled around small black and white sets across the country to watch the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II.

Televisions were still a novelty and a luxury in 1953. Prime Minister Winston Churchill had objected to the Westminster Abbey service being filmed, saying it was inappropriate for people to watch such a solemn occasion while drinking tea in their living rooms.

But after the intervention of the Queen herself, cameras were allowed in - and it proved a huge success.

Sets were donated to hospitals across East Lancashire for the event, mainly in children's wards.

Peter Fielding, 72, of Ramsbottom, was a laboratory technician in Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital and remembers the day vividly.

He said: "I went to the children's ward and there was a 12 inch set with a crowd of us watching. It was a very exciting experience. We were proud, everyone was quite patriotic in those days. The Queen looked beautiful.

"Everything stopped that day, everybody watched the Coronation."

Other public television shows were held in Barrowford Ambulance Hall, Chatburn Methodist School, Darwen Library Theatre, and schools in Mellor and Wiswell.

Worried by the threat of television, bosses of 23 local cinemas proclaimed through the Northern Daily Telegraph - our predecessor - that their theatres were the only place to see the Coronation. A full-colour special film was screened two weeks after the event.

Apart from watching the Coronation, there was plenty of other activities to keep people busy.

Churches had special services and the majority of East Lancashire communities put on sports competitions in the afternoons for children.

Processions were held in Burnley, Accrington and Blackburn, where there were also activities in Corporation Park with variety acts, including a comic dog show.

The cricket season was in full-swing and several celebratory matches were held, including Accrington v Church, while Darwen's Anchor Ground hosted a six-a-side football game.

In the evening, several areas put on bonfire and fireworks displays. These were held at Bacup's Lee Quarries, Darwen's Blacksnape fields, Haslingden's St Peter's fields, Rishton's Harwood Street recreation ground, in Billington, Great Harwood, Slaidburn and on Whalley Nab.

In Blackburn, the night was dominated by three beacons lit by Scouts at Corporation Park, Grimshaw Park and in Mellor.

Great Harwood took a different angle and staged a boxing, wrestling and weight-lifting contest on the cricket field.

Some towns held dances as the adults waltzed the night away following a hectic Coronation Day.

On June 6, the East Lancashire Regiment was given The Freedom of the Borough of Burnley to mark the Coronation. Thousands lined the streets as the soldiers paraded past the town hall.

In the following weeks, as life got back to normal, people had many precious new memories and the realisation that they had been part of something special.

As a Telegraph comment column from the time said: "Never has the country been warmer and more demonstrative than on the occasion of this Coronation."