It was described by reporters as one of the happiest, most informal and most memorable of royal visits – and the people of Acomb enjoyed it in their thousands.
Seventy years ago today, on July 28, 1949, thousands of people lined the streets of the Carr Estate between Beckfield Lane and Carr Lane as Princess Elizabeth visited the city, on what would be her final visit to York before becoming Queen in 1952.
A week before the visit, the Yorkshire Post described the neighbourhood in Acomb as being ‘on tenterhooks’ amid rumours that the future Queen would visit some tenants in their homes. The estate was still new at the time, and expanding rapidly in the post-war years.
Sure enough, on July 28, she and the Duke of Edinburgh visited several houses.
Streets were thronged
They had a tour of 29 Jute Road, courtesy of the tenants Mr and Mrs Radford, then visited the Collinson family opposite, the Turner family in Ostman Road, and then the Mardell family in Danebury Drive, where they had tea and biscuits.
The Yorkshire Post the next day reported: “The Carr Estate was thronged with tenants and visitors as the Royal car threaded its way slowly through the streets of new houses…
The house in Danebury Drive was the last of four which Princess Elizabeth and the Duke visited. Each time their car stopped, and they got out, they were mobbed by the tenants.
“Sometimes you could just see the Princess’s white straw hat, bobbing about among a crowd of other heads, followed by the Princess Royal’s pale blue hat, but they enjoyed it. They were smiling all the time.”
Earlier in the day, the Royals had also visited a prefab in Regent Street off Lawrence Street, as well as the Minster and Bishopthorpe Palace.
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