In a previous post on this blog about the history of the land on which Arden Court and Oakhouse Drive now stand I referred to a royal visit by Princess Anne.
As a consequence of fortuitously finding this invitation card while undertaking a search for a completely unrelated item I am now in a position to finalise the story
This is the invitation to the ceremony performed by Princess Anne, 24th October 1969 in support of The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, an organisation of which she remains a staunch supporter.
After this discovery I realised that the event was much earlier than I had formerly thought and that further research of the Manchester Evening News microfilms at Central Library might prove to be fruitful.
This indeed was the case as Princess Anne's visit (her debut official one to the area) received a good deal of coverage both on the Friday of the visit and in the Saturday editions, as can be seen below.
part of Manchester Evening news report of the day Saturday 25th October 1969
One significant point, and very revealing of how things have changed as regards to such matters, is that in the Thursday Evening News a detailed itinerary, including proposed road routes was published.
Obviously security concerns would preclude this happening nowadays.
In closing, my recollections of the day are quite vague.
I believe as a family we were quite chuffed about getting an invite, though we were not particularly keen royalists, especially as we had only moved to Cundiff Road earlier that year.
My main emotion (as a teenage schoolboy) was that of being glad I was going to see Princess Anne, as one of her first royal duties, in the preceding May had been the presentation of the F.A.Cup to Tony Book , captain of my team Manchester City.
© Tony Goulding
Pictures; from the collection of Tony Goulding
 |
| The invitation |
This is the invitation to the ceremony performed by Princess Anne, 24th October 1969 in support of The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, an organisation of which she remains a staunch supporter.
After this discovery I realised that the event was much earlier than I had formerly thought and that further research of the Manchester Evening News microfilms at Central Library might prove to be fruitful.
 |
| The newspaper report |
part of Manchester Evening news report of the day Saturday 25th October 1969
One significant point, and very revealing of how things have changed as regards to such matters, is that in the Thursday Evening News a detailed itinerary, including proposed road routes was published.
 |
| Princess Ann |
In closing, my recollections of the day are quite vague.
I believe as a family we were quite chuffed about getting an invite, though we were not particularly keen royalists, especially as we had only moved to Cundiff Road earlier that year.
My main emotion (as a teenage schoolboy) was that of being glad I was going to see Princess Anne, as one of her first royal duties, in the preceding May had been the presentation of the F.A.Cup to Tony Book , captain of my team Manchester City.
© Tony Goulding
Pictures; from the collection of Tony Goulding
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