Remembering the Queen's visits to Yorkshire from 1949 to the autumn of her reign

That moment was the start of her first visit to Yorkshire, an enormously successful three-day tour in which hundreds of thousands of people in the towns and cities of the old West Riding turned out to greet and cheer their future Queen.

It was also to set the tone for the dozens of visits she was to make to Yorkshire across the next 60 years. As the years passed, the Queen saw the changing face of the county. At the beginning of her reign, she saw an industrial landscape of pits and mills; by its end, both were extinct.

But some things never changed - the cheering crowds and the warmth of the welcome that Yorkshire always gave her.

The tour of 1949 set Yorkshire alight with enthusiasm for the young princess. In Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Pudsey, Wakefield, Harrogate and York, police cordons struggled to hold the vast crowds back.

So many people packed into Wood Street in Wakefield to see her that it was impossible to move.

In Ramsden Street, Huddersfield, people climbed onto rooftops to catch a glimpse of her. In Harrogate, 10,000 gathered outside the Majestic Hotel for a sight of her on the balcony. In Leeds, 50,000 packed into Roundhay Park to see her as she watched a childrens’ pageant.

Three years later, Yorkshire was mourning George VI, and sending its condolences to the young Queen. Only eight months into her reign, she was back in the county, to attend the St Leger race meeting at Doncaster, on a flying visit.

Her passion for the turf would bring her back to Doncaster many times over the years to see the oldest classic race, along with other meetings. One of her most memorable visits was in 1953, when, accompanied by her first Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, she saw her colt, Landau, ridden to victory in the Doncaster Produce Stakes.

York Races, too, would often welcome her as an honoured guest, especially in 2005 when the Royal Ascot meeting was held there whilst its home was redeveloped.

Her first full-scale tour as Queen was in 1954, when she spent two days in Yorkshire’s industrial heartland, touring Barnsley, Rotherham, Sheffield, Bradford, Batley, Morley and Leeds.

The remainder of the 50s saw her visit Hull and Catterick, along with the first of three visits to the Great Yorkshire Show, at Harrogate, in 1957, when police once again struggled to hold back the cheering crowds.

She would return to the show in her Silver Jubilee year, 1977, and again in 2008 to commemorate its 150th anniversary.

The 60s brought more memorable moments – the Queen opening two new colleges at York University in 1965, attending Selby Abbey’s 1,900th anniversary celebrations in 1969, and sailing down the Humber aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia after a tour of Hull the same year.

But the 70s really was a decade to remember for the people of Yorkshire. The Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee in 1977, and the nationwide tour she undertook brought her to Yorkshire on July 12 and 13.

The streets were filled with union jacks and cheering crowds as she and Philip met the people of York, Hull and Wakefield.

In Leeds, she toured Elland Road, which was filled to capacity with 40,000 people who attended a youth festival in her honour.

Britannia was moored off Grimsby, and the Queen disembarked to tour the town before moving on to Doncaster, Sheffield and Barnsley. She would return to Yorkshire at the end of July to take the salute at a Jubilee review at RAF Finningley.

She returned to the region in 1981 to officially open one of its great landmarks - the Humber Bridge.

In 1985, she made an historic visit to Ripon - the first reigning monarch in more than 400 years to visit the city. Huge crowds awaited her outside Ripon Cathedral, where she distributed the Royal Maundy.

Another historic church brought the Queen back to Yorkshire three years later, when she attended the thanksgiving service to mark the restoration of York Minster after fire devastated the south transept on July 9 1984.

The 90s saw her in Leeds, where she opened the spectacular Royal Armouries in 1996, and Bradford, where she distributed the Royal Maundy in 1997.

And then, as a new century dawned, the Queen returned to celebrate her Golden Jubilee.

On July 12 and 13 2002 - the same dates as her Silver Jubilee visit - the county’s people once again gave her a rapturous reception. Crowds gathered at Temple Newsam, in Leeds, to cheer her at a concert, thousands waited in the city’s Millennium Square for her walkabout, and a spectacular pageant in her honour was staged at Harewood – ancestral home of her cousins the Lascelles family thanks to her aunt Princess Mary’s marriage to the Earl of Harewood in the 1920s.

There was also a visit to the set of television soap, Emmerdale, where the Queen met the cast and watched an explosion devised by special-effects experts. And then it was on to Beverley, for a tour of the historic town.

The Queen affirmed the special place that Yorkshire held in her heart, when she made a speech to civic and business leaders in Leeds.

“As we have seen this afternoon, Yorkshire is a diverse region. The great conurbations of Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York are matched by the broad acres of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.

“Few places in Britain are more ethnically diverse. Yorkshire boasts long traditions, and yet over the past 50 years has been at the forefront of change, not least economic.

“But whatever the differences, there is a thread which runs through this patchwork. The character of Yorkshire people is distinctive and unchanging, trenchant, determined and welcoming. Over 50 years I have never failed to be impressed by the warmth and the loyal support wherever I have visited.

“May I thank every one of you for your kindness, generosity, and consistency over the last five decades. It is a great pleasure for both of us to be here today.”

The reaction of Yorkshire to her visit to mark the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 was even more tumultuous.

She and Philip visited twice that landmark year, the first being to York at Easter, before the official jubilee celebrations began, where she distributed Maundy Money at the Minster.

They were cheered by huge crowds in a foretaste of what was to come in July, again visiting Leeds.

Briggate was packed with people, with so many clamouring for a sight of the Queen that she asked royal protection officers to lift children over the barriers so that they could present flowers to her.

The crowds were out in force again for one her final visits to Yorkshire – to Sheffield, at Easter 2015, where she distributed Maundy Money at the city’s cathedral. She also went to Richmond Castle in the same year.

In 2017 she made her final visit to Yorkshire – to Hull for its City of Culture year. She had lunch at the university and toured the Siemens wind turbine blade factory.

It had been over 70 years since the young Princess Elizabeth first set foot in Yorkshire, but just as her devotion to her people had never changed, neither had the county’s affection for her.