Helicopter descends through mist with a royal visitor for factory and club

Duke of Edinburgh meets the crowds at world-leading fencing wire company and sees the new facilities at an amateur rugby league club

CROWDS had an anxious wait in 2003 before a purple Sikorsky helicopter emerged from the mist and fog bringing a royal visitor to Millom.

The VIP passenger was the Duke of Edinburgh who was to land in Devonshire Road to visit the Tornado Wire factory and new £204,000 changing room and community gym extension for Millom Rugby League Club.

The Mail on Friday, August 8, noted: “The royal-crested helicopter carrying the Duke of Edinburgh circled Millom for 30 minutes before the pilot made the decision to land through murky fog.

“Below, more than 100 invited guests, sponsors, officials and hordes of royal fans waited around Millom Rugby League Club – nicknamed the Wollybacks – with bated breath.

“After a perfect landing on the rear training field, the Duke was swept past cheering crowds to a reception and more crowds outside the Tornado Wire factory on Devonshire Road.

“Holborn Hill Royal Junior Brass Band thumped out a rendition of Tom Jones’s Sex Bomb as waiting dignitaries stood outside the factory in a line to greet the Duke.”

Tornado production manager Alick Nicholson showed him Tornado Gold – the world’s first coloured, reflective and galvanised wire with a lifespan extended by up to 20 years.

Among those he met was Andrew Semple who showed him the only machine in the world able to manufacture a huge range of fencing products with different size sections.

The article noted: “Around the factory staff stood nervously beside their machinery and answered the Duke’s questions regarding work production, product ranges and specifications.”

After a walkabout the Duke unveiled a commemorative plaque.

He also presented a merit certificate to John Singleton for his 20 years’ service.

At the rugby ground he was able to meet youngsters in Millom club kit and unexpectedly asked for look inside the extension – where the carpet had yet to be laid.

The Mail article noted that the opening of the extension coincided with the club’s 130th anniversary.

It was founded in 1873 and is the world’s oldest amateur rugby league club.

The Millom clubhouse, at the Coronation Field on Devonshire Road, had been built in 1953 – the coronation year for the Duke’s wife Queen Elizabeth II.