FOR many it was only the briefest of glances, but the crowds of people who lined the streets were delighted to see the Queen’s first visit to Bolton for 21 years.

Hundreds of well-wishers lined the entrance road to Warburtons bakery in the town in the hope of seeing Her Majesty and Prince Philip.

The enthusiastic crowd, many of them children from the nearby Valley Primary School, turned the bleak industrial estate into a party zone as they shouted, waved flags and counted down to the moment when she was due to arrive.

Just before 2.30pm, the Queen’s Rolls Royce Phantom glided into view from Waters Meeting Road and the expectant crowds, already buoyed by the emergence of the sun, went wild. Her Majesty smiled and waved from the back seat of the car and Union Flag-waving went into overdrive.

Resplendent in top-to-toe fuchsia, many onlookers commented on how beautiful she looked, and — in the case of some of the younger visitors — how old she was!

The Duke of Edinburgh sat to the left of the Queen, with his passenger window open, listening to the children’s screams of delight.

Within seconds, the royal car, flanked by police motorcycles and security people in Range Rovers, had disappeared into the Warburtons factory.

Nick Biggs, who runs Biggs Barbers in Blackburn Road, said the Queen was a welcome ray of sunshine in these dark times. He added: “It’s nice to see something so special in a world that’s terrible at the moment. It’s fantastic to see all the kids cheering.”

Mohammed Farid, aged nine, a pupil at The Valley School, said: “It’s nice to see the Queen because I haven’t seen her before. She wore pink clothes and everything about her was nice.”

julian.thorpe@ theboltonnews.co.uk