Pearly Queen My Story

This story belongs to Ella and Nanny Carole.

It is a tiny tale about Nanny Carole's life

and the things she used to do.

Ella is helping Nanny Carole feed the fish in her garden pond.

But now it's time for Nanny Carole to share her memories

and take Ella on a journey of discovery.

-Who are you going to draw?

-Nanny!

What about my pearly hat on the top?

Can you put a pearly hat on?

Put all the feathers on.

Can you do lots of big, big feathers?

Ella is drawing Nanny Carole wearing a special outfit

because Nanny Carole is a pearly queen.

Here's an old picture of her with Ella's Grandad Pat,

who is a pearly king.

Their special suits are covered in hundreds of pearly buttons.

This bit here, you could draw some little buttons. No, little ones.

Little buttons. That's it.

There, I have lots of buttons, don't I, on my outfit?

That's lovely.

You're clever girl, aren't you?

And then Nanny Carole talks some more about being a pearly queen.

I've been a pearly queen for many, many years now.

There are pearly kings and queens in different areas all over London.

Each pearly family has a different design on their costumes.

For example, some have bells,

some have horses,

some have buildings,

according to what is in their area.

Nanny Carole is showing Ella the designs on her pearly suit.

This is a horseshoe. This is what the horses wear on their feet.

The horses work in the markets.

That's why we put horseshoes on our suits.

It's all about London.

The horses in the market and the flowers in the market,

the flower sellers sell flowers.

(Look what I've got.)

Whose is this? Look!

NANNY CAROLE GASPS

And what does that say on there?

-Pearly princess.

-It does.

-Let's look at the back.

-Because you are a pearly princess, aren't you?

This is Ella's new pearly suit.

Ella is a pearly princess because she is part of a pearly family.

Here she is in her very first pearly suit

when she was just two years old.

Pearly children don't have as many buttons on their suits

because that would make the suits too heavy to wear.

-And when you get bigger...

-I'll be a pearly...queen.

-Queen!

That's right! A pearly queen! You'll be just like Nanny.

Then Nanny Carole takes out her box of pearly buttons.

The buttons are made from something called mother of pearl.

Mother of pearl comes from special seashells

which are shiny on the inside.

Pearly queens like Nanny Carole use these special buttons

because they shine so brightly on their suits.

The "pearly" in "pearly queen" comes from the special pearly buttons.

And look, Ella has some fun with Nanny Carole's buttons.

-A leaf!

-Yes.

Owl, twit-twoo, twit-twoo.

That is really good.

ELLA GASPS

Look at this one!

Oh, my gosh!

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Seven!

CLACK! CLACK!

What a lot of button fun!

Now it's time for a quick change.

-Shall we go and get into our pearlies?

-Yes!

Come on, then.

Wow! Don't they look wonderful?

Whee!

Are we forgetting someone?

Hey!

It's my grandad and he's a pearly king.

Ella's Grandad Pat is a pearly king.

Here he is with Nanny Carole when they were younger.

There have been pearly kings and queens in London

for a very long time.

The first pearly king was a man called Henry Croft.

This picture shows a statue of Henry.

His job was to clean the streets around the London market,

just like this man is doing.

People went to market to buy food,

but many of them didn't have a lot of money.

Henry wanted to help them, so to get everyone's attention,

he covered his clothes with special pearly buttons

a bit like these ones.

People started to call him the pearly king

because of his pearly buttons.

And ever since, London has had pearly kings and queens,

like Nanny Carole,

who dress up in special suits to collect money for people in need.

Ella and her Nanny Carole and Grandad Pat

have come to a famous place in London called Covent Garden.

I think it is time now that we did some collecting.

-Collect some pennies to give to people that need it?

-Yeah!

Where do we put the pennies?

In here.

Off they go!

Nanny Carole and Grandad Pat

have collected money to help others for many years.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

# Doing the Lambeth walk... #

London's pearly kings and queens are so famous

that people like to take photos of them.

Nanny Carole and Grandad Pat attract attention whenever they go

because pearly kings and queens are such a famous part of London life.

They are so famous that when the Olympic Games came to London,

lots of pearly kings and queens were asked

to take part in the big opening show.

Here's Nanny Carole with the Olympic torch.

And after all their hard work raising money for others,

it's time for Ella to have some fun around Covent Garden.

Peek-a-boo!

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

High-five!

You go and put it in the hat.

ELLA SCREAMS

THEY ALL LAUGH

ELLA GIGGLES

Pearly kings and queens love to dance and sing, Ella.

Their favourite is the Lambeth Walk.

-Would you like to do the Lambeth Walk with me?

-Yes!

Good.

# Once you get down Lambeth way

# Any evening, any day

# You'll find us all

# Doing the Lambeth Walk! #

-Oi!

-Oi!

London's pearly families

have been doing the Lambeth Walk for a long, long time.

Look at this old film.

# Once you get down Lambeth way

# Any evening, any day

# You'll find us all

# Doing the Lambeth Walk. #

Grandad Pat has brought Ella and Nanny Carole

to a very old London shop that sells a special kind of food.

It's called an eel and pie shop.

Hello.

Ella, I'm going to try some stewed eels.

Stewed eels in a lovely green sauce.

I'm going to taste one.

Look at these fishermen catching the eels.

An eel is a type of fish that is long and wriggly.

A long time ago, there were lots of eels in the River Thames in London.

They were eaten by many people because they were very cheap to buy.

And now we are going to try the pie and mash.

You like mash, don't you?

Now, would you like to try some?

There you are.

Mmm!

I like it.

And now we are going to try Grandad's favourite, the pie.

-Shall we try the pie?

-Yeah, I like pie.

-You like pie.

I like beef.

Oh, that does taste good.

Like a long, long time ago, they used to have to go out and buy food

and this was one of the cheapest foods you could buy

and that's what they used to live on, pie and mash.

Pie and mash shops have been popular in London for a long, long time

and so has a special way of speaking called cockney rhyming slang.

People think it was first spoken

in a part of London called the East End.

Normal words were swapped for words around with them

so "plates of meat" came to mean "feet".

Nanny Carole speaks cockney rhyming slang

and she is going to test Ella.

Ella, do you know any rhyming slang?

Do you know what apples and pears is?

Apples and pears, go up the stair.

And what about Barnet Fair?

Hair.

Ah! So "apples and pears" means "stairs"

and "Barnet Fair" means "hair".

I think I'm getting the hang of this now.

What about Cain and Abel?

Table!

Yeah, that's right! Lovely. Clever girl.

-It's time to hit the frog and toad, the road!

-The road!

-The road.

The road, the road, the road.

Ahh.

NANNY CAROLE KISSES ELLA

-Did you have fun, Ella?

-Yes.

And can you remember all the things that we've done together?

Drawing a picture of Nanny.

Looking at all the buttons.

Wearing my pearly princess outfit.

Collecting pennies.

Singing and dancing.

Eating pie and mash.

What did you enjoy the most?

-Singing and dancing.

-# Doing the Lambeth walk! #

Oi!

I've got some new feathers for you for your hat.

What a fabulous heap of fun!

That was Ella and Nanny Carole's tiny tale

about Nanny Carole's life as a pearly queen.

Now Nanny Carole has shared her story with Ella,

it's time for Ella to start her own story.

Do you know someone who has a story to share?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd