DRESSED in a new frock and shaking with excitement 12-year-old Barbara Foxwell joined the packed crowds as she peered through patriotic flags to get a glimpse of the Queen.

Now 60 years after travelling to London to watch the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Barbara, of Manley Common in Manley, is getting ready to join the crowds once more to see the ‘most constant’ woman in her life outside the gates at Chester Zoo on the same day her mother would have celebrated her 100th birthday.

A lot has changed since former school teacher Barbara, now 71, boarded the train to London with her parents and sister and excitedly waited to see the Queen in Trafalgar Square, but her memories of that magical day have never faded – unlike the much-faded flag which still flies proudly outside her house.

“We were lucky enough to go down to London to see the Coronation. I’m not sure many people alive today will be able to say that now,” said Barbara, who will be joined by her sister Jean Cooke and husband Michael as they look out for the Queen today and celebrate the life of her mother May Atherton.

“It was so exciting, I had never really been outside the area. We were from a little village and no one really travelled anywhere. So we were privileged to go to London and to see such a special event.

“My grandmother made me and my sister dresses for the trip.

“I remember being really excited, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. I had never even seen a foreign person before.”

Now a grandmother herself, Barbara, who grew up with her parents and sister in Helsby, said she remembers a tall man picked her up and placed her on his shoulders so she could see over the crowds.

Now the sisters are putting on their frocks and getting ready to see the Queen once more.

“We have applied to go down and watch the Jubilee celebrations in London, but we are waiting to see if we have been chosen,” said Barbara, who said that if the flag isn’t flying outside her house people think she has moved out.

“It is amazing she is still doing what she is doing now.

“I don’t think people realise how much she does. She is a constant in my life and everyone’s in Britain.”