Wooten Basset gets Royal Affix Granted By The Queen

[Tyburn]

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, was obviously deeply moved by the people of Wooten Basset who, of their own accord, decided to honour those fallen troops who returned to England and passed through their small town en route from the base to being laid for resting. Finally, the Ministry of Defence has moved the Repatriations back to the Base it used to use, relinquishing Wooten Basset and its inhabitants from the seemingly unending agony of greeting the corpses of dead Service personnel who have given their lives for the foreign wars our Country is engaged in.

As one of the few gifts which is wholly instigated and endowed directly from the Crown and bypassing Government entirely, Her Majesty has declaired the desire to express her gratitude to the towns Inhabitants by Presenting it with a Royal Charter of Patronage where the Town now bears the affix "Royal"

This she expressed at the start of the year...and this weekend Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth Windsor made it so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5zagAJpVes&feature=feedu

[Tyburn]

Incidently...before you think this is a regular occurance...the English Crown is very hesitant to claim portions of inhabited land as Patronage...usually they attach themselves to an Organisation, or a Charity and become the Patron of that...like a figurehead.

In terms of Towns, there has only been two other Towns granted Charters of Patronage, They include Royal Leamington Spa, by Her Majesty, Queen Victoria in 1838, and Royal Tunbridge Wells in 1909 by His Majesty, King Edward VII

There is only one County in England which has a Charter of Patronage, and this dates back to the Great Depression. King George decided that having a Germanic Surname was quite frankly shyte between the Wars, so he decided to change his Surname, and he decided to name himself after one of his Royal Residences, a Big Castle in Berkshire known as Windsor. Now He never formerlly Granted this Charter and probably because he didnt want to draw attention to the fact he needed to change his name to distance himself from the Germans....but on Succession to the Throne Queen Elizabeth the first of the line to be born under the name Windsor itself, said she planned on rectifying that. The Charter appeared in 1974

Similarly only one Village has a Charter of Patronage...and really this is an older Charter known as Incoorperation which includes a patronage clause. Royal Sutton Coldfield was given its Charter in 1528 by His Majesty, King Henry VIII mainly because since the middle of the 1400s there had been a Royal Manor in that area and the Village had grown around it.

There are Several Boroughs in the United Kingdom which have Royal Patronage aswell...infact next year I believe to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, The Borough of Greenwhich (which is the place where the UFC hold all its London Venues) will be given a Charter of Patronage.

:)