The Diamond Jubilee State Coach

The state opening of parliament this year was the first official occasion that the general public had the opportunity to see the new state coach, the Diamond Jubilee State Coach as it is now referred too.

Initially called the State Coach Britannia it was made to make the occasion of HM Queen Elizabeth’s 80^th birthday however it was delayed for approximately 8 years. Designed by the Australian coachbuilder who was responsible for the 1988 Australian State Coach W. J. Frecklington it was completed in 2010 however it was not transported to the United Kingdom until March 2014 due to there being issues surrounding funding the transportation of the coach to the United Kingdom from Australia.

Before its formal arrival in the United Kingdom Buckingham Palace was at pains to insure that the public was informed that the coach project was initiated by Mr. Frecklington and was not commissioned by the Palace. Build with a grant from the Australian Federal Government in the order of $250,000 (or £138,000) the coach weighs 2.75 tons, is 18ft long and 11 ft high and has electric windows, heating and hydraulic stabilizers.

The coach has been described in the popular media as a museum on wheels as it contains historic objects that represent more than 30 kings and queens of England, Scotland and Ireland, the most important figures of historic United Kingdom such as Horatio LORD Nelson, her greatest victories and her greatest contributions to the world.

The coach is made up of material from the following:

·       The crown atop the roof is carved from timber from Lord Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory.

·       Timber segments from The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose, the Mayflower, Balmoral Castle, Blenheim Palace, Caernarfon Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Carlisle Cathedral, Chichester Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, Ely Cathedral, Hampton Court, Holyrood Palace, Kensington Palace, Lincoln Cathedral, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, Osborne House, Salisbury Cathedral, St George's Chapel, Stirling Castle, The Palace of Westminster, the Royal Pavilion, the White House at Kew, Wells Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, Windsor Castle,York Minster and others are inlaid into the interior lining of the coach.

·       Also included is material donated by the Scottish Government from the Stone of Scone, wood from the Ferriby Boats (~1800BC), a segment of material donated by the Canadian Government from the Franklin expedition 1845 and others from the former Royal Yacht HMY Britannia, HMS Endeavour, The Battle of Hastings, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Olympic, SS Great Britain, RSS Discovery, an original counterweight from Big Ben, a Battle of Britain Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane, a Dambusters Lancaster, part of a musketball from the Battle of Waterloo.

·       Segments related to Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Edward Jenner, John Harrison, Joseph Banks, Florence Nightingale and other famous figures are also included as well as digital copies of the Magna Carta and Doomsday Book.

·       The two door handles are individually decorated with 24 diamonds and 130 sapphires.

·       The lamps were handmade by Edinburgh Crystal.

Once the coach arrived safely in the United Kingdom it was purchased for an undisclosed amount of money by the Royal Collection Trust and now forms part of the Royal Collection and after being used in the State Opening of Parliament will be placed on display at the Royal Mews, London.

W. J. Frecklington was born in 1949 in Parkes, New South Wales Australia. After working in the Arctic he moved to England and was engaged at Windsor Castle and later moved to the Royal Mews in London caring for the Royal ceremonial horses and driving the carriages on ceremonial occasions. He also served as an outrider at Ascot.

In 1977 he was invited to manage the Queen's Silver Jubilee Exhibition during its tour of Australia and following that built a replica of the Edward VII 1902 Landau.

He then went on to build Queen Elizabeth's Australian State Coach that was presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of the Australian Bicentennial in 1988

For those well informed readers you will recall that Parkes is world famous for being home for the Southern hemisphere radio telescope used by NASA during the Apollo missions and rather famously “lost” contact with the Apollo 11 space craft due to the fact that backup pumps had not been corrected pumped by staff working at the site for use during a power cut.