ON the day that Buckingham Palace announces the death of Queen Elizabeth II, aged 96, we take a trip down memory lane to 1957 when she stopped off in Kidderminster as part of a royal tour.
Thousands of people flocked to the streets of Kidderminster to welcome Queen Elizabeth II during a royal visit of Worcestershire in 1957.
Arriving with local dignitaries at Kidderminster Town Hall at 4.53pm, on April 23, she told its 180 guests that the decorations were "quite some of the prettiest I have seen".
After tea at the Town Hall she travelled up Comberton Hill as part of a whistle-stop tour that lasted just 37 minutes, but delighted the gathering crowds on the streets.
Bunting, flags and flowers greeted the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, passing decorated houses, pubs, shop windows and roads after an appeal from the mayor, Alderman Louis Tolley.
Crowds gathered nearly five hours before the arrival of the couple with most people in their places by 3.30pm, children sat on the ground to eat picnics, and more than 300 police lining the route.
One of the oldest residents was Ern Jones, 86, of Dudley Street, who told a Kidderminster Shuttle reporter he had taken two hours from his job at the fish stall to catch a glimpse of the Queen.
Younger viewers included nine-month-old Wayne Jagoda and Kidderminster High School pupils, sisters Diana Holmes, 15, and Wendy, 13, who told the Shuttle their wait "will be worth it".
In total, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were presented to 34 people during their visit, including the world’s only centenarian sisters at that time, Jane Badland, 104, and Caroline, 101.
A factory tour had seen the Queen visit plants in Halesowen and Brierley Hill, although Brintons, of Kidderminster, was one of two cut off the list due to time, which she "deeply regretted".
Travelling in her black and maroon Rolls Royce, she made finally made her way up Comberton Hill to board the royal train at the town’s railway station, which arrived from Hagley.
More than 1,100 children from local youth groups lined up to give the couple a royal send-off, as chants of "we want the Queen" drew her to a window for a final wave goodbye.
The Queen, who was described in a Shuttle report of the time as a “radiant figure", left the platform to a rousing reception at 5.30pm to continue her tour of Worcestershire into Worcester.
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