Queen's Diamond Jubilee sees the UK's longest public record unrolled

There weren't that many names on Workington's petition for Queen Victoria's great bash. But organisers glued together enough sheets of paper to find a place in history
Queen Victoria at time of diamond jubilee
Queen Victoria at her diamond jubilee. Workington had a whale of a time. Photograph: Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

The recent system of e-petitions to Parliament has led to some mighty long lists of names demanding debates on particular reforms. But there is still something impressive about Workington's rediscovery of a curiosity in its civic archives.

It is the longest public record surviving in the UK, 85 feet of joined-up pieces of lined school textbook paper which stretch twice the length of a traditional double-decker bus and five feet further than a blue whale.

Workington's great petition
Isn't it long? Workington's great petition. Photograph: Cumbria Archives

The number of names isn't quite so impressive, at 1,602, but that doesn't detract from the enthusiasm with which they are signed, some elegantly, others as an urgent, pen-pressing scrawl. Gathered in May 1897, they ask the then council for a new road to be created in the town for a parade to mark the last Royal diamond Jubilee, the only other one in UK history, which was reached by Queen Victoria the following month.

Cumbria county council's senior archivist for Workington, Robert Baxter, says:

Some people couldn't write their own names and addresses. You can see where people have signed on behalf of their neighbours who put an 'X' by it as a signature. A lot of people in Workington might have a grandparent whose name appears on the petition.

The Cumbrian port, with the sea to the west and the mountains of the Lake District rising to the east, is the sort of place where people like to stick around.

Workington's great petition
local people have been checking out their ancestors, including some who signed X Photograph: Cumbria Archives

Baxter's colleague Catherine Clark says:

You can imagine people sitting there with their fountain pens, signing on it. It is a beautiful thing to look at for the varied writing you see.

Baxter also notes a detail which helps to explain why the council said no:

No petition needed: Workington's replacement Navvies Bridge across the river Derwent which flooded disastrously in November 2009. Photograph: Tony Greenbank

You can tell because of the way the addresses are laid out that someone went door to door.

Councillors suspected that land speculators wanting to build between Oxford Street and Workington train station were behind the project rather than super-patriotic townspeople who today would be mass-producing cupcakes – the unofficial symbol of Queen Elizabeth II's diamond day. But the subsequent bunfight suggests that they may have been a little too sceptical; the parade went ahead anyway and was quite something.

An artillery band and tambourine dancers vied to see who could make the most noise, while morris men, a bicycle parade and floats got up by friendly savings societies entertained up to 15,000 onlookers. There was a maypole ceremony, fireworks on the cricket ground and a finale with a bonfire on Calva Hill.


The long and now very fragile roll, reminiscent of those Andrex 'Soft, strong and very long' TV adverts with the puppy, is on display until the end of this week at Whitehaven archive centre as part of a Jubilee programme organised by Cumbria record office. Here's a clip from YouTube, to give you the idea.