TORRENTIAL rain put a dampener on what was supposed to be the highlight of the Queen’s first visit to York since assuming the throne, on July 10, 1957.

She and the Duke of Edinburgh had been scheduled to watch a performance of the Mystery Plays in Museum Gardens.

Instead, after she and Prince Philip had been to the Minster, they agreed to meet members of the cast of the plays in costume at Tempest Anderson Hall.

Despite the rain, huge crowds gathered outside York Station for the royal couple’s arrival at 6pm. “York roared its welcome in defiance of the weather,” proclaimed the headline in the next day’s Evening Press.

After being greeted at the station by the Lord Mayor Alderman EL Keld and Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Scarborough, the Queen – slim, youthful and elegant in a pale blue lace suit and matching hat – walked with her husband and the civic party out of the station to be greeted by a burst of cheering.

The royal car took the party to the Assembly Rooms. “The ripple of cheering which started as the royal car was seen to turn down into Station Road grew in volume as the procession came down the hill and crossed the intersection of Rougier Street and Station Road,” the Evening Press reported. “As the Royal party passed the crowds, loudly cheering and waving flags, surged into the roadway.”

The car passed over Lendal Bridge, where a keen amateur photographer stepped off the pavement to grab a ‘close up’ photograph.

At the Assembly Rooms, the Queen was presented with a box of York-made confectionery, chatted to Mr E Martin Browne, the producer of the Mystery Plays, and met invited guests, including eight boys and girls chosen by ballot to represent the city’s schools.

Then the royal entourage headed for the Mansion House for a private party with the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress. During the short journey, the streets through which the royals passed were “a sea of multi-coloured umbrellas as the royal car moved slowly through the crowd-lined pavements”, the Evening Press reported.

There, two enterprising York housewives – Mrs Una Pratt of Tennant Road, Acomb, and Mrs B Simpson, of Station Road, Haxby – had brought a five-foot stepladder so as to be able to see the royal couple over the heads of the crowd.

“I never miss a Royal visit,” said Mrs Simpson. “I have seen the Queen Mother and the late King as well as Queen Mary.”

At just after 8pm, the royal couple emerged from the Mansion House to be greeted by more enthusiastic cheers. They were then driven to Duncombe Place, where they sent about 40 minutes listening to organ music played by Minster organist Dr Francis Jackson. They were also given a tour of the Minster by Dean Milner-White.

The Mystery Plays themselves rained off, there then came that visit to Tempest Anderson hall to meet members of the cast, before a return to York Station and the royal train.

At one point during the visit, the crush of crowds in Duncombe Place was so great that one little girl – six-year-old Ann Carlyle of St Martin’s Lane – was knocked off her feet. She hit her head on a lamppost and suffered a cut forehead. After being treated by members of the St John Ambulance, however, she was still cheerful. “I saw the Queen!” she said.