Queen Victoria's
visit to Wolverhampton, November 1866
Soon after the double wedding, in November 1866, Queen
Victoria chose to visit Wolverhampton to unveil an
equestrian statue of Prince Albert in High Green,
renamed Queen Square in her honour. Hannah and Edith
Macdonald would surely have tried to see the processions
and enjoy the festivities. It was certainly a major
event as the Queen unexpectedly knighted the Mayor after
the unveiling, but more significantly this was the first
public engagement by the Queen since the death of her
Consort five years earlier. It was a major coup for
Wolverhampton as she had turned down invitations from
other much larger places like Liverpool and Manchester.
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The royal visit in 1866.
Queen Victoria's carriage procession along
Snow Hill, Wolverhampton.
From the Illustrated London
News. |
| The unveiling of the statue of
the Prince Consort.
After the Royal visit, a
fireworks display was held in the evening at the
Racecourse and many streets and buildings in the town
centre were illuminated by gas-light.
It must have been quite a
sight, as the incredible photograph taken that evening
in Queen Square shows. |
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| A photograph of
the newly-named Queen Square.
With gas-light illuminations on
the evening of 30th November 1866. |
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Queen Square in
1867.
As the Macdonalds would have known it,
showing the recently unveiled statue of Victoria's
consort.
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Postscript |
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