Remember this? It was moment in April 1987 when the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh arrived in Ely for the special Maundy Service at the cathedral.

It was only the third time a reigning monarch has been to the city in 700 years and everyone was determined to make the visit an occasion to remember.

The Royal couple were greeted at the station by officials and drove to the Gallery in a glass topped Rolls-Royce. Their route along Back Hill was lined with cheering, flag-waving crowds.

At the West Door the Queen was greeted by the Bishop of Ely, the Rt Rev Peter Walker.

Inside the cathedral capacity congregation of 2,600 representatives from church and civic life in the diocese waited to witness the distribution of the Royal Maundy which the Queen handed out to 122 pensioners - one man and one woman for each year of her age.

It was a memorable day for pupils from St Mary’s school in Ely who were chosen as the Children of the Royal Almonry.

After the service the Royal couple went over to the crowd who had waited patiently in the spring sunshine 87 04 16

This is one of thousands of stories reported in Cambridgeshire newspapers between 1897 and 1990 that you can read and download for free from my Internet Archive site https://archive.org/det…/CambridgeshireScrapbook2018Revision