The day I was lucky enough to meet the Queen

During each visit crowds of local people would line the streets in the hope of catching a glimpse of the monarch.

For one little girl, Heather Patton, who was just sevens years old during the 1977 visit, it was more than justa glimpse as she had the honour of speaking to the Queen and presenting her with a bunch of flowers.

“As pupils of Hillsborough Primary School we were extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to go to Hillsborough Castle and see the Queen during her Silver Jubilee visit in the summer of 1977,” recalls Heather.

“I was almost seven years old at the time and can remember my mum buying me a new dress to wear and giving my a posy of fresh cut roses from our garden for me to take with me.

“We walked from the primary school through the village up to the castle where we lined up waiting for the Queen to arrive.

“The large red helicopter landed in the Castle grounds and the Queen began to make her way along our line where we were all eagerly waving flags in our excitement.

“She then stopped with me and asked if the roses that I had were for her, to which I replied, ‘yes they were’.

“Thed photo then appeared in local newspapers the following day, which meant I have had it to look back on as a very special memory over the years since then.

“Our experience was also shown for a number of years on BBC1 at the end of the day when they used to play the National Anthem.”