NEXT month's visit by the Queen to Huddersfield is the latest in a long line of Royal events.

It will be the third time the Queen herself has visited the town as reigning monarch.

She was here in 1971 with a dual role - opening the huge Scammonden Dam and the Pennine stretch of the M62 motorway.

Nineteen years later, she returned to the town centre to officially open the headquarters of the British Amateur Rugby League Association.

Appropriately enough, the headquarters of the amateur game were based just a few hundred yards from The George Hotel, where the sport itself was born.

However, the Queen had visited Huddersfield before ascending the thrown in 1953.

In 1949 Princess Elizabeth, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, visited Trafalgar Mills on Leeds Road, watched a display by schoolchildren at the Huddersfield Town football ground and then appeared on the Town Hall balcony before enormous crowds.

However, you have to go back a long way to Huddersfield's first Royal guest.

It was in 1883 that Queen Victoria's son Leopold, the Duke of Albany, arrived in town amid huge pomp and ceremony.

He was here to dedicate the town's new park, Beaumont Park - currently undergoing a huge revamp back to its Victorian splendour.

The townspeople certainly pushed the boat out for their royal guest.

The council agreed to foot a bill of more than £1,000 and that paid for bunting and flags to be draped on virtually every building across the town centre.

Since then, of course, a stream of Royal guests have beaten a path to Huddersfield.

Princess Margaret, the Queen's late sister, was a regular visitor.

She was here in 1953, 1967, 1970, 1973 and 1992 - often combining a private visit to see friends with a regal duty.

The largest crowds turned out to see the late Princess Diana, Princess of Wales.

She made her first visit to the town with her then husband Prince Charles and delighted huge crowds in the town centre with an extended walkabout.

The Princess returned alone years later, opening a sheltered housing complex in Dalton and also delighting staff and prisoners at new Hall prison in Flockton with a flying visit.

Charles himself was back in town to mark the opening of the revamped Huddersfield Narrow Canal, and to join staff at the Examiner in celebrating the newspaper's 150th birthday.

Many other visitors over the years have delighted the crowds, including the Duke of York, the Duchess of York, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent.

And every time Huddersfield has put on its smartest outfit and its most welcoming smile.

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