“Welcome back, Ma’am” was the Worcester Evening News headline on March 1 2001 for the Queen’s visit to the city as part of 250-years of Worcester Porcelain.

It was freezing cold, but the sun shone as Her Majesty – dressed in a violet coat and matching hat – stepped off the Royal Train at Worcester’s Shrub Hill station.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh met station manager, Nigel Smith, before being driven to the £10.8m new Worcester City Police headquarters.

It was her first visit in 12 years as hundreds lined the streets at places where she would make an appearance throughout the day.

One onlooker said: “I’m delighted to see the Queen come to Worcester at a time of national crisis.”

Cast your mind back to spring 2001 and the tragic foot-and-mouth epidemic was going from bad to worse with new outbreaks emerging across the UK.

Closer to home, severe floods had hit the county in recent months, with the Queen and the Duke both keen to speak to those who had been affected the most. This included a detour to Worcestershire County Cricket Club after their visit to the new police station.

The Duke also made a solo visit down to the River Severn to meet Environment Agency flood defence manager Peter May.

The pair strolled along Kleve Walk and the Duke was shown historical watermarks carved into the wall.

“I have every sympathy with the people who have suffered,” the Duke said.

“I hope it doesn’t happen again.”

Her Majesty and the Duke were then treated to lunch at the Guildhall – and met royal fan Colin Edwards – and it was his 105th time of meeting her!

Mr Edwards had travelled two hours from Macclesfield and told the Evening News: “The Queen looks in wonderful health and I’m sure she’ll live as long as the Queen Mother.”

The paper went on to report that “shop assistants crowded the windows of Marks & Spencer, while Thomas Cook staff hung out of upstairs windows to catch a glimpse”.

The Queen received dozens of bouquets and gifts from residents and among these was a picture of Royal Worcester Porcelain by seven-year-old Wulstan Nixon from Claines.

He said: “I decided to do the picture with crayons when I knew the Queen would be visiting – and I think she liked it.”

The Evening News wrote that the city was “on a high” following the Queen’s visit and a special supplement entitled ‘Diary of a Royal Day’ was run in the paper that weekend.

In other news of the week of her Majesty’s visit; the paper reported on plans for the former Cattle Market to be turned into a carpark, job losses nationally at Corus Steel and how readers could win tickets to Boy George’s Worcester gig.

You could get a bargain on the property market too – as a three-bed Grade-II listed house was up for sale for £95,000 near Powick.

The Motoring supplement featured the “first three-door 4x4 by Suzuki” and on prime-time Saturday night TV was reality show ‘Popstars’ documenting the success of the band Hear’say.