When the crowds flocked to town centre for royal visit in 1962
HISTORIAN Ian Bott is well known in the Black Country and beyond for his talks on local history, and one of his upcoming events will take audiences back to 1962, when Queen Elizabeth visited several of our towns.
Ian will present ‘A Royal Visit to Wednesbury’, illustrated with dozens of slides, on Sunday March 8, at St Bartholomew’s Church on Church Hill, at 6pm, to raise funds for vital work on the church building.
On May 24, 1962, the queen visited Wolverhampton, Wednesfield, Wednesbury and Bloxwich, and Ian has plenty of photographs from the Wednesbury leg of her one-day tour. Arriving by royal train in Wolverhampton, she then visited the nearby towns in the traditional glass-roofed Rollsroyce, and joined the train once again at Wednesbury.
Crowds
Ian has kindly loaned the Bugle a selection of photographs taken while the queen was in Wednesbury, showing the large crowds who had assembled hours before the monarch was due to arrive – there are even a couple in colour, showing the scene in the town centre
around the clock tower, and the royal car passing down Lower High Street. The queen on this occasion was accompanied not by the Duke of Edinburgh, but her lady in waiting, Countess Euston.
Below, left, she is pictured on stage at Wednesbury Town Hall, surrounded by all the local dignitaries, including the MP John Stonehouse who would go on to achieve great notoriety some years later when he faked his own death.
Ian also has a ticket to the Town Hall, and tells us that members of the public were invited to enter a ballot, with a small number of places made available for those lucky enough to be drawn out of the hat.
At the talk on March 8, there will also be a display of rare Wednesbury Civic memorabilia, and Mario Castillo will be singing songs from the era during the interval.
Tickets are available at £5 each. Speak to Rob in the church, call 07854 369523, or you can pay on the door.