My daughter and the Prince

Today was an exciting one for the children of Staveley Primary and the rest of the village as Prince Charles came to visit the Mill Yard and see its little businesses in action. The head teacher had asked for as many children as possible to be there in uniform to greet the prince as he arrived.


We duly arrived well in advance of the scheduled time just as it started to rain! An enthusiastic crowd was already gathering and the rain didn't seem to dampen their anticipation:

Even the youngest residents were happy to join in with the celebration:

For quite sometime nothing happened apart from the security services adjusting the crowd! There were no barriers or anything so the children naturally kept creeping forward right into where the cars were dur to arrive. The most exciting moment was being filmed by ITV News.... Bay Radio also asked one the school staff some questions in an interview.

At this point John Crane's grandad braved the weather to see what all the excitement was about:

Then slightly later than schedule finally the noise of cheers from round the corner let us know that the Prince was on his way at last:

We were ideally positioned for where his car stopped but unfortunately he got out on the other side and vanished off into the More bakery:

At this point we had no idea when the Prince would reappear and whether he would do a walk about anywhere near us. Whilst we were waiting Tim Farron our MP came and spoke to the children so that they had some distraction:

Despite the rain the crowd continued to hold on in the hope of getting a closer view of the Prince as he visited several of the businesses in the Mill Yard:

My daughter at this point demanded to go home but I was determined to hold on as we may never get a chance to see royalty this close again. After what seemed like a very long wait Prince Charles appeared and started working his way down the crowd getting closer:

Everyone immediately started snapping away and cursing those still with umbrellas up! I couldn't see my children as they were at the front but this may have been the moment when my daughter was shaking hands with the Prince:

Then he was in front of my section of the crowd and asked if we had come for the beer! He was obviously looking forward to sampling the wares from the Hawkshead Brewery:

Then it was all over as he turned to go into the Beer Hall to meet local business people and sample the beer:

For all my family it was our first experience of being close up to a member of the Royal Family. I could have done without all the hanging around but seeing my 8 year old's reaction to having shaken his hand "the future King of England" will stay with me forever.