LUDLOW has had a number of Royal visits over the years with Prince Charles being the most recent in 2012.

More than 100 years ago,his great-grandmother Queen Mary came to the town although, at the time of her visit, she was the Princess of Wales.

The visit took place in on November 24, 1909 and in this rare photograph she is seen walking in what is believed to be Mill Street.

With her are The Countess of Yarborough, Kathleen Rickards, whose family have the hardware business in Ludlow, Sir Douglas McKenzie Wallace and H T Weyman.

The photograph has been made available from the collection of Catherine Whittall from Richard’s Castle.

It is one of a number of photographs that Catherine, aged 88, has and was left to her.

“I have lived in Ludlow all of my life and it is a lovely town,” said Catherine.

“As I girl, I remember going to the old library and also remember the old market where Tesco’s is now. I would sit on the wall and the cows would come and lick my knees with their rough tongues.”

She does not know the reason why the Princess of Wales made the visit in 1909.

But she was one of the most influential members of the Royal Family.

At the time of her visit, Princess Mary Louise of Schleswig Holstein could not have known what a colourful future was in store.

She was born at Kensington Palace in May 1867 and so would have been aged 42 when she came to Ludlow.

Just six months after visiting Ludlow, Mary became Queen Consort when George V became King. She was crowned with the King in Westminster Abbey on June 22, 2016 only 18 months after being in Ludlow.

George V reigned until 1936 in a difficult period that covered the First World War and the economic depression of the late 1920s that continued up to the time of her husband’s death. It was a period that also saw major political changes, including the first Labour government.

Her oldest son David was king for less than a year before he abdicated because he was not allowed to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson and remain on the throne.

This resulted in a constitutional crisis and her second son becoming George VI. The issue caused a rift in the family that was never to completely repair.

Mary was the grandmother of the present Queen and lived to see her granddaughter become Queen following the death of George VI in 1952.

Queen Mary played an active part in the education and upbringing of the Queen as a child along with her sister, the late Princess Margaret. She is known to have taken the young Princesses on a number of visits to places of interest.

Queen Mary died in March 1953, aged 85, and so did not live to see the Coronation of Elizabeth. It is said that, knowing she was unwell, Queen Mary left strict instructions that the Coronation should not be postponed in the event of her death.