Queen Elizabeth II's visits to Rutland and Stamford over the years
Her Majesty made three visits to Stamford and another three to Rutland during her reign.
The Queen's first visit to Stamford was on Monday, June 19, 1961, with the Duke of Edinburgh, to mark the town's quincentenary year.
During a tour of the town in a Rolls Royce, she attended a presentation at the town hall and visited a new housing estate and St George's Church.
After meeting a large gathering of local schoolchildren, she concluded her afternoon visit by spending a 'more informal hour' at Burghley House before catching the Royal Train back to London.
The Mercury reported the journey was made without her husband who had left Burghley earlier by car to play in a polo match at Cirencester Park.
Her Majesty made her first official visit to Rutland six years later on Friday, May 12, 1967 again accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh.
After arriving by royal train at Oakham station, they walked to Oakham Castle where they made what was believed to be the first visit by a reigning monarch.
There a ceremonial horseshoe, made by the Queen's farrier, was unveiled which had at its centrepiece a horseshoe from one of her own racehorses.
The couple were also greeted by more than 3,000 children in Doncaster Close, Oakham, before going onto a reception at Gunthorpe Hall laid on by the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, Col Thomas Haywood. They then moved on to tour Uppingham and took in a display in the town market place.
The royal couple returned to Stamford in 1971 for a very poignant visit as daughter Princess Anne competed for Great Britain in the European Eventing Championships at Burghley.
The Queen arrived on Friday evening, a few hours after her husband, and was among the spectators for Saturday's cross country round.
Along with Prince Philip, Her Majesty attended a service at St Martin's Church on Sunday morning before joining a record crowd of 20,000 to see the 21-year-old Princess crowned European champion.
It would be another 13 years, on Friday, November 16, 1984, before Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh returned, to help Uppingham and Oakham Schools celebrate their 400th anniversary years. Both had been founded in the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth.
They took a tour of an award-winning old people's complex at the Hospital of St John and St Anne, in Westgate before moving on to the school to see the new Oakham Theatre.
The Queen planted a tree on Laboratory Lawn before lunch at Asburton Hall.
Uppingham School was their next stop where they were entertained with a performance by the school's chamber orchestra, including a solo piece by 17-year-old Andrew Webster, a finalist in the previous year's BBC Young Musician of the Year.
The two Rutland towns were again the destination for the Queen's next visit on Thursday, June 28, 2001.
In Uppingham they were greeted by a performance by the Rutland Morris Men, and up the road in Oakham, the Queen visited the town library while the Duke of Edinburgh opened the new Conservation Education Centre at the Anglian Water Bird Watching Centre at Egleton.
The Queen most recently came to Stamford as part of her Diamond Jubilee Tour on Wednesday, June 13, 2012.
A crowd of more than 8,000 were there to greet her as she arrived by helicopter at Burghley Park where she planted a lime tree at the south entrance, as her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had done 168 years earlier.
She was presented with a Stamford Book of Commemorative Messages by seven-year-olds Jessica Hartley and Caleb Jelf, before meeting mayor of Stamford, Bob Sandall, and his wife Sue.
Crowds lined the streets as she was driven through the town centre, accompanied by a flypast from the Red Arrows.
