A SECOND brush with royalty was enjoyed by Fylde Mayor Alfred Jealous and wife Muriel - when they met the Queen last week.

Just days after Councillor Jealous greeted Prince Andrew at the Open golf tournament, the Fylde Mayor was invited to meet Her Majesty while at a Buckingham Palace garden party.

Alfred said: "It was the most wonderful day of my life and beyond my wildest dreams."

Although there were more than 2,000 people at the event, the Lord Chamberlain, Earl of Airlie, asked Alfred and Muriel who they were and if they would like to meet the Queen.

He added: "To be invited to see Buckingham Palace and the members of the Royal Family was great, but we never suspected we would get to meet the Queen."

The nervous couple lined up with others selected to be introduced to Her Majesty and from around 4.30pm on Thursday (July 25), they spent ten minutes chatting with her about the Fylde.

"She remembered her last visit to the borough, when she came to Weeton barracks. She told me it had been really windy here then," said the mayor.

"I explained to her that this is a residential and rural area which has a flourishing tourism industry, separate from that of Blackpool.

"She was very interested and I asked her to come to the Fylde again because the people here would love to see her."

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