As the Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee this year, a group of women in Welling will celebrate their anniversary too. Reporter ALAN WOODS joins them for a coffee.

IT IS 35 years this month since the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 brought together a large group of families in Welling Way - and some have never looked back.

After socialising on the daily school-run, mothers in the street decided to throw a fancy dress jubilee party for their children, funded through a series of ‘50p-a-time’ coffee mornings across a four-month period.

With Welling Way on a bus route, there was no opportunity to close the road for a street party so revellers were forced to celebrate in the garden of homeowner Pamela Lilley.

Today, 76-year-old Pamela still lives in Welling Way and after all these years a small group of the original jubilee-celebrators still meet every Wednesday to share a coffee.

Pamela explained: “Eight ladies still live in Welling Way and we take it in turns whose house we go to for coffee.

“The oldest lady is 92 now and I don’t think she would leave the house if it wasn’t for us.

“We all look forward to Wednesday as it gets us all together - if we had too big a number we wouldn’t be as friendly with each other.”

Looking back to the fancy dress celebration, Pamela remembers the day well.

She said: “The lady next door took two fence panels down so we could go into their garden because it was so big.

“We had people playing games in one area and a magician performed tricks for the kids in another corner.”

In the following years, the group of families went on days out to attractions such as Leeds Castle, with one of the biggest outings being to Broadstairs in 1978.

Pamela remembers: “I hired three coaches at £32 each time - nowadays a coach is £300 a time so it was really cheap.

“As so many people were going to be away the police said they would come up on little recce throughout the day and make sure our houses were alright.”

To celebrate their 35th anniversary, the Welling Way ladies enjoyed a lunch together rather than just a coffee last Wednesday. (February 29)

They will be celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee by meeting up for an Oriental dinner.