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The Royals have been no strangers to Cumbria this year, with a number of visits from the nation’s most talked about family to factories, museums, towns and celebrity dogs.
Princess Anne kicked off 2019 with the first of three visits to the county, when she dropped in on footwear producer New Balance in Flimby, near Maryport, in January.
The thirteenth in line to the throne toured the factory floor of the American-owned company – the UK’s second biggest footwear manufacturer – as part of a trip designed to promote British-made products.
She also travelled south to Barrow to meet foodbank volunteers and officially open a new building run by youth charity Project John.
In February, HRH the Countess of Wessex dropped in on John Farrer and Co, Tea and Coffee Merchants, in Kendal, to help the firm mark its 200th anniversary.
As a gift, the Queen’s daughter-in-law received a hamper of the company’s 1819 blend coffee and 2019 blend tea.
Two months later Prince Charles was also in Cumbria for a series of royal engagements.
He helped Carlisle’s Pirelli Tyres celebrate its 50th anniversary as well as opening the £20m Windermere Jetty Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories.
One of those who spoke with the prince during his visit to the tyre factory was mechanical apprentice Katy Mossop from Workington.
“He asked me if I enjoyed it and if I’d gone to college before this,” she said.
“He was friendly.
“He seemed really interested.”
During the tour of the new steam museum, on the shores of Windermere near Bowness, Prince Charles was also given a blast from the past after being reunited with steamboat Branksome.
Built in the late 19th century, Branksome is Windermere’s flagship steamboat, which His Royal Highness sailed aboard when he initially opened the Steamboat Museum in 1977.
He went on to visit the Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team and the team at Hawkshead Relish Company.
However, these visits were perhaps just the warm up act for the sheen of celebrity which accompanied the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge when they came to Keswick in June.
Thousands of people lined the streets around the Lake District town’s Market Square to catch a glimpse of Prince William and wife Kate.
Kensington Palace tipped the visit as celebrating the “resilience and spirit of rural and farming communities in Cumbria”.
They took time to meet volunteers from Keswick Mountain Rescue, Keswick First Responders, Youth Mental Health First Aiders and other organisations which have received grants from Cumbria Community Foundation.
Andy Beeforth, chief executive of the foundation, said: “It’s been great to be part of organising the visit and introducing the Duke and Duchess to so many amazing groups and people.”
In Keswick, William was introduced to his brother – albeit in the canine form of therapy dog ‘Prince Harry’.
The regally named Springer Spaniel (full Kennel Club registration title Prince Harry of Winter Fells) met the royal couple along with his owner Kerry Irving, Kerry’s wife Angela, and his fellow therapy dogs Max and Paddy (the latter of whom is also Harry’s brother).
Kerry has written a book about how Max helped him overcome his battle with depression and both Max and Paddy have become online celebrities with people following their fundraising adventures on social media and YouTube.
There are more than 100,000 followers of Max’s Facebook page: Max Out in the Lake District and another 29,000 on Instagram, all following his days out and adventures in the Lakes.
“It was just the proudest day to be stood in my home town in front of all those people and to chat to Prince William and Kate,” said Kerry after meeting with the royal couple.
Later in the day William and Kate tried their hand at sheep shearing and dry stone walling at Deepdale Hall Farm, in Patterdale, run by the Brown family.
They took the time to discuss some of the issues – such as rural isolation and support payments – facing the farming community.
Later that month, Prince William’s uncle Prince Edward came to Barrow where he toured BAE Systems Maritime’s shipyard as well as St Mary’s Hospice before visiting Walney’s nature reserve and oyster farm.
Princess Anne then returned to Cumbria in July to visit both the £30m Whitehaven Campus, which combines St Benedict’s Catholic High School with Mayfield School, and the newly built head office of training organisation Gen2 in Lillyhall, Workington.
The princess is president of the City and Guilds of London Institute, while Gen2 is part of The City and Guilds Group, as well as The City and Guilds Institute of Advanced Technology.
Finally, in September, Princess Anne solidified her status as Cumbria’s most regular royal visitor of 2019 when she toured Furness General Hospital’s £12m state of the art South Lakes Birth Centre as part of her role as patron of the Royal College of Midwives.
The Princess also took the time to visit the Save the Children shop in Ulverston. She has been the patron of the charity since 2016 after serving as its president since 1970.
At the time Carol Carlile, head of Midwifery, gynaecology and obstetrics at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust, said: “It means a great deal to all of us to be recognised in this way.”
