Royal Visits to Lancashire, King Charles, Prince Charles and The Queen, A 50 Year Timeline
Lancashire has a long and well documented connection with Royal visits, from civic walkabouts and cathedral services to hospital engagements and landmark celebrations. For many local people these moments are part of the county’s shared memory, the kind of day you remember because the route was lined with crowds, the town centre felt different, and the cameras followed a familiar face through places you know.
This timeline focuses on Lancashire towns people most often search for when they look up Royal visits, including Lancaster, Preston, Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley and Blackpool. Where possible, each entry is tied to a specific place and date, so it can be checked easily against public records.
Lancaster
9 June 2025, King Charles III at Lancaster Castle
King Charles III visited Lancaster as Duke of Lancaster, taking part in the Ceremony of the Keys at Lancaster Castle and meeting people from Lancashire communities. The Ceremony of the Keys is a long standing tradition at the castle, and this visit is one of the clearest recent Lancashire engagements in the modern reign.
Source https://www.royal.uk/news-and-activity/2025-06-09/the-king-visits-lancaster
Source https://www.lancashire-lieutenancy.org/his-majesty-the-kings-lancashire-visit-june-2025/
Preston
5 August 2002, The Queen in Preston at the end of the Golden Jubilee tour
Preston was the final stop of Queen Elizabeth II’s UK Golden Jubilee tour in 2002. The Royal Family’s official record preserves the message delivered at the close of the visit, making this a straightforward verified reference for Preston’s modern Royal history.
Source https://www.royal.uk/end-queens-uk-golden-jubilee-tour-preston-5-august-2002
29 May 1981, Prince Charles in Preston, community engagement
A Preston community organisation records a visit by Prince Charles in 1981 for the inauguration of Gita Hall. It is one of the more specific and locally rooted references for Preston in this period, tied to a named institution and a named moment.
Source https://www.ghspreston.co.uk/golden-milestone-project/golden-milestone-gallery/
Blackburn
17 April 2014, Royal Maundy Service at Blackburn Cathedral
Blackburn Cathedral hosted the Royal Maundy service in 2014, with Queen Elizabeth II presenting Maundy money to recipients from across the county. This is a particularly notable Blackburn entry because the Maundy service is a nationally recognised Royal tradition held in a different cathedral or abbey each year.
Source https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2014/04/maundy-recipients-gather-for-service-in-blackburn.aspx
Accrington
1955, The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at Accrington Town Hall
Lancashire archive records include photographs from a Royal visit to Accrington Town Hall involving Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The detail matters because it places the Royal engagement in a specific civic building that still anchors the town centre today.
Source https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/view-item?i=321007
Source https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/view-item?i=320965
16 May 2012, Diamond Jubilee tour activity in Accrington
Reporting on the Diamond Jubilee tour in the North West includes Accrington among the Lancashire stops, with references to town centre venues such as the Market Hall. For many people this is the modern Accrington Royal moment they remember, particularly because it involved public viewing and town centre crowds.
Source https://www.itv.com/news/update/2012-05-16/queen-visits-north-east-on-diamond-jubilee-tour/
Burnley
29 November 1979, Prince Charles at Burnley General Hospital
Burnley’s local heritage archive records that Prince Charles visited Burnley General Hospital on 29 November 1979, and the Lancashire archive catalogue includes an image entry describing him speaking with hospital staff during that visit.
Source https://www.bcthic.org/Archive/Royal_Visits/Prince_Charles_Visit_1979
Source https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/view-item?i=235394
Around 1980 to 1982, a Burnley General Hospital A and E visit, local eyewitness memory
Some Royal moments are remembered locally even when the paperwork is difficult to find quickly online. One Burnley resident, now 54, recalls seeing Queen Elizabeth II visit Burnley General Hospital and walking through the Accident and Emergency area when they were about 9 or 10 years old, placing the memory around 1980 to 1982. This is best treated as a personal account unless and until it is corroborated by a plaque, a hospital record, or a local newspaper archive reference.
12 November 1987, The Queen in Burnley, recorded town visit
Burnley heritage archives document Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Burnley on 12 November 1987, including a Manchester Road walkabout recorded across multiple images and captions. This is the clearest verified Queen in Burnley entry to cite in a Lancashire timeline.
Source https://www.bcthic.org/View_Archive?NDAzOXwxMzh8fHw=
Blackpool
1994, The Queen in Blackpool linked to the centenary of Blackpool Tower
A Royal Family social media post references a 1994 visit to Blackpool connected with the centenary of Blackpool Tower, including a period photograph from the visit.
Source https://x.com/RoyalFamily/status/1522126131440369667
7 December 2009, Royal Variety Performance at the Opera House, Winter Gardens
The Opera House Theatre at Blackpool Winter Gardens hosted the Royal Variety Performance in December 2009, with Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh attending. The Royal Variety Charity archive confirms the venue and the date, making this a clean, citable Blackpool entry.
A note on verifying older Royal visit memories
If you want to lock down an exact date for a remembered visit, the most reliable local proof usually comes from one of three places. A commemorative plaque inside the building, a local newspaper archive, or an official visit record held by a local authority, institution, or NHS trust. These sources tend to confirm not only the date, but the purpose of the visit, such as an opening, a walkabout, or a ceremonial engagement.
Our own Marco and his sister young students in the 1970s at Casterton primary School clearly remember the Queen visiting Burnley General Hospital in around 1979 but in that pre-Internet documented World after extensive searching we cannot find any source to corroborate so we’ll have to rely on memory alone.
If anyone has a photo or recollection of this event, please get in touch and we will add it to this post.
Sources
https://www.royal.uk/news-and-activity/2025-06-09/the-king-visits-lancaster
https://www.royal.uk/end-queens-uk-golden-jubilee-tour-preston-5-august-2002
https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2014/04/maundy-recipients-gather-for-service-in-blackburn.aspx
https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/view-item?i=321007
https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/view-item?i=320965
https://www.itv.com/news/update/2012-05-16/queen-visits-north-east-on-diamond-jubilee-tour/
https://www.bcthic.org/Archive/Royal_Visits/Prince_Charles_Visit_1979
https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/view-item?i=235394
https://www.bcthic.org/View_Archive?NDAzOXwxMzh8fHw=
https://x.com/RoyalFamily/status/1522126131440369667
if you’re interested in a Sofa or any advice on visiting Lancashire or just a nice chat and reminisce, our staff always enjoy a coffee and a chat in our Warehouse showroom gallery in historic church Accrington pop in The cappuccino is on us.
