Growing up in Sunderland: When you watched Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation on your first TV

This month marked 71 years since Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey; the first to ever be broadcast on television, at the monarch’s request.

According to the Royal Family, an estimated 27 million people in Britain watched the historic moment, with 11 million listening to the radio broadcast – and families on Wearside have been sharing their cherishsed memories of the landmark day.

The splendour of the ceremony was brought to people across the country and around the world in a way that had never before been possible, with many investing in their first ever television set, just so they could watch it.

Do you remember inviting the neighbours over to watch, partaking in a Coronation picnic or crowding around the radio to catch a moment of the action?

As we commemorated more than seven decades since Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation on June 2, we asked for the memories you had of the landmark occasion. This is what you had to say:

Sue Boswell: "My parents bought a television for the occasion and had all the neighbours in to watch."

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Kathleen Russell: "My granda bought the television, everyone from the street was in watching it."

Marilyn Goldberg: "My father and sons of his brothers bought their mother a TV especially and many of us crowded into her sitting room to watch it raining in black and white - it was thrilling. I was four."

Chris Baron: "Half of our street was in our house as not many had TVs then. Only four years of age, but remember that day reasonably well. One friend of my Dad’s worked at the local brewery and brought a crate of OBJs along, which stood for O Be Joyful. Black and white pictures hid all the colour of the day, but did not hide the excitement of the day!"

Margo Lax: "Watching every second on our new TV. Sitting eating my indoor Coronation picnic on the carpet as it was pouring down outside."

Martyn Benson: "Grandparents had bought a TV for the occasion."

Stella Todd: "Was very young (one) but was in London with family on a roof overlooking The Mall."

Judith Porter: "I was nearly seven, not many people had a TV then and a girl at Diamond Hall school's parents invited one person from each class to watch it and I was picked. I still remember the girl's name, it was Pearl Sumby."

Beatrice Hind: "Had to wait until we were taken by the school to see the film of it. I can remember being awestruck at the pomp and pageantry."

Dorothy Berry: "Yes nipping in from the street party [to] view on a 12” EKO television."