Sherborne In Bloom!

Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited Sherborne today as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee tour.

The royal train drew up to Sherborne station right on time, just as the drizzle of rain stopped.

The Queen and Duke got off the train to greet the reception party. Here the major of Sherborne, Cllr Marjorie Snowden, is presented to Her Majesty.

As the Queen emerged from the station she was greeted by a peal of the Abbey bells and an enthusiastic crowd who had come to welcome her.

And the Duke smiled and joked with the flag-wavers as they shouted their greetings:

The royal party visited Sherborne Abbey where they met schoolchildren in a tent having a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and they also visited a food fair in the Abbey grounds. Then they dropped into the Digby Memorial Hall to join a 1950s-style coffee morning in celebration of the Queen’s coronation in 1953.

Sherborne is honoured to have the Queen visit our town – the only stop in Dorset in the Diamond Jubilee tour.

All too soon the visit was over and the Queen and Duke waved goodbye as their car took them back to the station:

Thank you for visiting Sherborne, Your Majesty – please come again soon!