DID you know Queen Victoria one passed through St Helens?

Steve Wainwright filled in the details: "With regards to your comments regarding Jules Verne, did you know that Queen Victoria passed under New Street bridge on May 11 1886 and again two days later upon returning home when her special train travelled through St Helens Junction on a trip from Windsor Castle to Liverpool?

"The two day visit was mainly to open the city’s International Exhibition of Navigation Commerce and Industry. Security was tight and the public were banned from the Junction station until the train, preceded by a pilot-engine, had passed through.

"This was only three years after Irishman Patrick Flannigan from Convent Row in Sutton, a brakesman on the L and NW railway, had been convicted of a charge of levying 'war against Her Majesty' as part of a Fenian terrorism plot. It was supposed that his intention had been to blow up St Helens Town Hall or some other public building.

"My website, Sutton Beauty & Heritage, contains full details in the articles 'When Queen Victoria Came Through Sutton' and 'Irish Terrorism In Sutton'. Was this Queen Victoria's only contact with St Helens, as she never visited our town?”