FIFTY years ago this week, model Maggie Hathaway Kear became royalty for the day as she waved and smiled to thousands of people lining the streets of Reigate and Redhill.
Out of 42 hopefuls, the 20-year-old was selected by the mayor to be queen at a huge carnival to celebrate 100 years since the granting of municipal borough status to Redhill and Reigate.
The residents of both towns poured onto the streets to be part of the landmark event in 1963.
Next week, a film featuring footage captured that day, and other vintage footage from the towns' history, will be screened – just one of a series of events planned over the coming week to help celebrate 150 years since Queen Victoria signed the Royal charter to create the borough.
"It was a brilliantly exciting day," said Maggie, now a grandmother-of-six living in West Sussex.
"My mother was absolutely beside herself, she bought herself a new hat and was known as the Queen Mother.
"We went right through Reigate. It wasn't one-way then so we came up High Street, down Bell Street, Lesbourne Road, Blackborough Road and into Redhill.
"There were 50,000 people lining the road all the way, it was absolutely amazing.
"There were hundreds of floats and people on foot all dressed up who walked all that way, it was just magnificent.
"I love history and now I am part of it, which I think is just wonderful," she added.
"I think it is a very important thing and I think people should get involved and go to all these things that are on. It is a wonderful thing to look back, the young people of today need to know what came before."
The charter was signed on September 11, 1863.
John Capon is the chairman of the group which has spent months organising the festivities to mark the 150th anniversary.
He said: "I think a sense of where we have come from is not only interesting but necessary because we then know who we are as a town, as two towns.
"I hope people will always have an interest in where they live and not be entirely indifferent to the circumstances of its history.
"Anything that can provide an excuse for people to delve into that history is good.
"And anything that helps bring a sense of community is desperately needed in what is an increasingly fractured society."
