Elizabethan Village - Hertfordshire

Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother opens Wheathampstead School, 1967. A young Queen Elizabeth at St Albans Cathedral, Maundy Thursday, 1957.

This film came to the East Anglian Film Archive via the Wheathampstead Historical Society. The footage was recorded by Margaret Wright and features two special royal visits to the county of Hertfordshire.

In 1967, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother visits Wheathampstead to officially open the secondary school. A decade earlier, in 1957, the Queen’s daughter, the young Queen Elizabeth visits St. Albans for the traditional Royal Maundy religious service on Maundy Thursday, which in 1957 is being held at “the Abbey”, St Albans Cathedral. The film shows two elderly residents who are the recipients of the customary Maundy money presented by the Queen in recognition of the service to their community and their church.