AIREDALE General Hospital at Steeton may now be past its best, but 50 years ago, Craven was preparing to welcome His Royal Highness Prince Charles to perform the opening ceremony of the new hospital.

The hospital cost £5.5 million to build and was to be administered by the Airedale Hospital Management Committee along with six smaller hospitals in the group. It was to serve a population of 155, 000 people in the Keighley, Bingley Skipton and Settle areas.

It was, reported the Craven Herald, the first time there had been a visit to the area of an heir to the throne, and there was great excitement.

His visit, exactly 50 years tomorrow, on December 11, 1970, was to last one hour and ten minutes and after the hospital, he was off to Otley to open Prince Henry’s Grammar School.

The hospital opening ceremony was to take place in the staff dining room in front of 400 guests and was to conclude with an act of dedication by the Bishop of Bradford.

Tenders for the hospital were invited in December, 1965, work started on September 1, 1966 and was finished in February, 1970. The first patients were admitted five months later in July.

The week after, the Herald came out on the day of the Royal visit, the paper gave over a whole page of the then broadsheet to the visit. It was, said the Herald a ‘memorable occasion for all who took part’.

Although the visit was brief, the ‘friendly personality and engaging informality of the Royal visitor made the occasion memorable, not only to the many guests assembled in the staff dining room to welcome him and witness the opening ceremony, but to the many members of the staff representing the several departments of the hospital with whom he chatted in an informal and friendly manner as he visited the wards and departments of the new hospital.’

There was, said the Herald, ‘abundant evidence of the genuine esteem in which the heir to the throne is held by all British people’.

He displayed a genuine interest in all he saw in the hospital and especially in the patients with who he ‘chatted in an informal and friendly way’ and to whom his ‘cheerful manner was a real tonic and will be unforgettable’.

Many people braved the cold and damp to catch sight of the Prince as he arrived at the hospital.

Betty Simpson, of Bent Lane, Sutton, told a reporter: “If you can’t turn out to see him when he’s on your doorstep, its a poor do”.

11 year old Martin |Keene, a pupil at Silsden Comprehensive School, said it was an honour to see him, adding “After all, he will be King of England”.

Because of the mist and general murkiness of the day, the Prince was unable to arrive by helicopter as planned from Wetherby, where he had spent the night at the home of the Lord Lieutenant of West Riding, Brigadier Kenneth Hargreaves.

He arrived in a Rolls Royce bearing the Royal pennant and was greeted outside the main entrance by the chairman of the then Skipton Rural District Council, Cllr J K Lockyer. Mrs Lockyer handed the Prince a book, The Life and Traditions of the Yorkshire Dales by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby, for which he expressed his pleasure and thanks.

Prince Charles signed the visitors book before proceeding to the main hall where he was welcomed by 400 guests.

“He performed his task with a delightful lack of official jargon and with pleasing brevity,” said the Herald.

Confessing he had been in hospital just twice, he found to his horror that matrons were no longer called matrons, but chief nursing officers.

His first experience was in a London hospital for an appendix operation, which he described as ‘ghastly’, although he had not wanted to leave in the end, and the second time when he caught pneumonia aged 15 and had gone to a nursing home in Aberdeen.

Referring to the fact he had not been able to fly into Eastburn, he said if he had, he might have landed on one of the flat roofs of the hospital.

On a tour of the hospital, the Prince first called into the sterile supplies department where he met the supervisor, Miss M McBurney and was given a brief explanation of the work of the department.

In the male and female ward of geriatric patients, Prince Charles was ‘obviously delighted’ to wish happy returns to Edith Rhodes, of Oakworth, whose 70th birthday had been a few days earlier. “Are you getting your presents in hospital?” he asked. He also popped into a single ward occupied by Norman Wright of Exley Head, asking him how long he had been in hospital and asking what the 75year old had worked at before retirement. Mr Wright was clearly encouraged by the good wishes expressed by the Prince, reported the Herald.

He also spend some time with four year old Tina Romano and 10 year old Rachel Blakeney of Ingrow, in the children’s playroom.

At various points of the tour, members of staff crowded the corridor junctions and applauded the Prince enthusiastically. He answered their greetings without embarrassment and with genuine warmth, occasionally ‘breaking ranks’ to speak to someone.

Outpatient, Clara Hey, of Cowling, said the Prince had wished her a happy Christmas, “I wished him the same,” she said.

The Prince met Edward Lawson, of Addingham, in the outpatients clinic. Mr Lawson said: “The Prince asked me what I was in the hospital for and I told him I had just been discharged, but was going to the clinic for treatment. He said: “Oh, that’s good.”

The Prince took coffee in the physiotherapy department and there met with a group of younger members of staff, including 18 year old domestic help, Anne Stevens, of Steeton, and Deidre Tyrell, of Cross Hills.

After leaving the department, he again broke with tradition to chat with wives, outpatients and voluntary workers in the entrance hall.

Maureen Morris, 22, from Barbados, a student nurse, said: “The Prince told me he had visited my island only three weeks ago and thought it was very beautiful.”

Millicent Palmer, 20, and Icilde Pickersgill, 25, both from Jamaica, said: “What a thrill it was. He asked us how long we had been in this country.”

As he left the main doorway to make his departure, the Prince was obviously touched by the volume of cheering and clapping which greeted his appearance. Although by now a few minutes behind his schedule, he went across to a big crowd of hospital personnel and visitors, shook hands with several and and of course was rewarded with the biggest cheer of the day when he finally left them to walk across to the waiting Rolls Royce.

A way up the road, a crowd of schoolchildren with Union Jacks waving frantically gave a final ecstatic and unmistakable expression of Yorkshire devotion to the Royal family.

Prince Charles, said the Herald, ‘wore a dark grey lounge suit, striped shirt and dark coloured tie. With his fresh complexion and smart gait, he looked an exceptionally fit young man.”

People lined the pavements as the Royal procession travelled through Steeton and Silsden and the Prince cheerfully answered their greetings with constant waves of his hand. And so ended a memorable day.

In its leader column, the Herald said all privileged enough to take part in the visit could not have failed to have been impressed by the Prince. It had been his wish that his two day visit to the West Riding be as informal as possible and in fact, he appeared to have made himself ‘quickly at home’, endearing himself to everyone who met him.”