People from Chester and further afield lined St Werburgh Street on Monday to pay their respects to the late Duke of Westminster, who died in August.
Others took up position outside the Chester Grosvenor Hotel in Eastgate Street with the hope of catching a glimpse of members of the royal family who attended a memorial service for the sixth duke, Gerald Grosvenor.
Patricia Parry arrived outside the West Door of Chester Cathedral at 11am, three hours ahead of the scheduled start of the service.
She had no personal experience of meeting the duke but said: “Anyone with any connection with him always spoke so highly of him. I am here to pay respect.”
University of Chester students, Charlie Faulkner and Caitlin Ellis, were also there to pay their respects.
Charlie said: “I never met the Duke, but my mum met him when she was 13. She received an award off him when she was a pupil at the Hammond School.”
Bill Proctor and his wife, Maureen, had travelled from Chirk especially for the memorial service.
Bill, who was stood outside the cathedral hoping to catch a glimpse of the royals coming out of the service, said: “We were hoping to see the Queen today, but I did manage to get a video of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Charles and Camilla coming out of the cathedral.”
Pam Banks, from Lancaster, was outside the cathedral waiting for her husband who had been invited to the service. She said: “My husband used to be a manager of the Abbeystead Estate so he was invited to the service today.
“We’re both here to pay our respects. He was a great man.”
Sharon Jones and Thea Humphreys, who are both from Wrexham, were outside the Grosvenor Shopping Centre watching guests leave the hotel to attend the service.
Sharon said: “We used to drive past the duke’s estate in Rossett all the time so we’ve come out today to pay our respects.”
Wendy Benbow and Julie Rhodes, from Goostrey, were out Christmas shopping in Chester and weren’t aware of the service until they arrived.
Julie said: “We are just on our annual Christmas shopping trip to Chester, we didn’t really know what was going on so we’ve just stopped to have a look.
“Our Christmas shopping trip had a bit of an unexpected turn!”
Vi Davidson, from Chester, attended the event and said: “I never met him, but my two sons had.
“He was a good man who did a lot for the TA and for the Army.”
Students from the University of Chester took their learning outside the lecture hall when the city was in lock down for the royal visit.
The first year event management students took to the streets to study plans for the memorial service for the late sixth Duke of Westminster to understand more about what goes on behind the scenes.
Lizzie Griffiths, who moved from Abergavenny in South Wales to take up a degree course in the city in September, said: “We spoke to traffic management personnel, the security team and police liaison officers and learnt a lot about crowd management.”
After their studies with tutors Martin Metcalfe, Tim Brown and David Atkinson, the group took up prime position opposite the West Door of Chester Cathedral with the hope of catching a glimpse of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as they left the service.
Chester resident Brigid Jones was hoping to catch a glimpse of ‘famous faces’ who were invited to the service.
Guests included the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent, Princess Alexandra, Princess Eugenie, MP and leading Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith and TV presenter Peter Snow. His son, Dan Snow, is married to the late duke’s second daughter Edwina.
