Hundreds of people lined the streets of Pickering today (June 12) to welcome King Charles III to the town.
The King’s visit marked the 100th anniversary of the Flying Scotsman and the 50th anniversary of The North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
The Royal Train was pulled into Pickering Heritage Railway Station by the famous locomotive.
At the station the King took the opportunity to climb on board the footplate of the Flying Scotsman and, despite wearing a light-coloured suit, accepted an invitation to step on to the train’s footplate and see how the engine works.
He also greeted the longstanding volunteers who help maintain the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and unveiled a plaque to mark 50 years since its official opening in 1973
The King was greeted by hundreds of well-wishers as he left the station and worked his way through the town’s centre on an extended walkabout.
He asked many of the schoolchildren who had gathered to see him whether they had enjoyed the half-term break.
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Temperatures soared in the baking sunshine and one woman in the crowd appeared to faint just after Charles passed her, falling through the barrier just a couple of metres from where he was talking to the crowd.
The King turned and looked concerned for a moment as one his protection officers and his equerry moved to help her before several North Yorkshire Police officers stepped in.
Charles continued to walk along Market Place and met with many in the crowd including the owner of Pickering Antiques Mark Witherington.
Mark gifted the King a late 1940s/50s photograph of Charles as a boy with his sister Princess Anne, their mother the late Queen Elizabeth and a pet dog.
Mark said the King remembered the photograph being taken and even remembered the name of the dog.
“It was very nice to meet him – it’s not everyday you meet the King,” he said.
Charles visited Birdgate Chocolatiers, a handmade chocolatier and ice-cream shop and Timm Family Butchers which sells produce from the Duchy of Lancaster.
Amanda Clifton from Birdgate Chocolatiers said the shop prepared a basket for the King with Tanzanian chocolate decorated with white roses.
While in the shop, she said Charles joked that the ice cream would be popular given how hot it was outside.
“(The King) was lovely, a charming man,” she said.
At Timm Family Butchers, Charles met Carolyn Strickland from the shop.
She explained how after he was finished in Pickering, the King was to visit West Farm which is run by her son Christopher Timm.
Carolyn said Charles asked where Christopher was and after being told he was at the farm waiting for him joked: “He’s waiting for me?”
The King then went into St Peter and St Paul's Church across the road.
Inside the church are wall paintings commissioned around 1450.
They are one of the most complete sets of medieval wall paintings in Britain and were only first accidentally rediscovered behind plaster in 1852.
The last Royal visit to the church was in 1937 by Queen Mary.
After a tour of the church the King signed a visitors’ book.
He waved to the crowd as he walked down the stairs from the church and was met with cheers and applause as he entered his car and left Pickering.
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