Royal visits to Cranleigh have been infrequent. The Prince of Wales, later briefly Edward VIII, rented Summerfold House on Pitch Hill from the Duke of Sutherland in the 1930s and bought his wines and groceries from Cranleigh High Street’s upmarket shop, Tyler’s. As a result, Tyler’s was granted the privilege of announcing on its shop and vans, ‘By Appointment to the Prince of Wales’, together with the prince’s emblem of three feathers.
There was apparently a visit by King George VI to inspect troops who were temporarily stationed here on the cricket ground on 1st May 1942, but such was wartime secrecy that the regular Court Circular merely said that the King was visiting troops in the South of England. We know about it only from a postcard of the Common written by a soldier to his daughter on Sunday 3rd May. It says, ‘Dear Liliane, This is a photograph of the cricket ground, where we were inspected by the King last Friday morning!’
In view of this rarity of royal visits, there was great excitement when Princess Anne visited the Save the Children rally being held at the Cranleigh Show in the grounds of Knowle on 29th July 1975. A local free monthly magazine of the time issued a special supplement to commemorate the occasion, from which most of the photos here are drawn.
In July 1975 Princess Anne was 25 years old, and had been carrying out royal engagements since she was 18 years old. By 2026 she has carried out more than 20,000 royal engagements. She does it in her own way, with informality, interest in people, and no handshakes.
At this time the Princess had been married to Capt. Mark Phillips for two years. She had distinguished herself in equestrianism, at an international level, winning the individual title at the European Eventing Championship on her home-bred horse Doublet in 1971, and later that year had been voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
The Princess arrived at Knowle by helicopter, to general excitement, and then toured the Show in a Landrover. Her first interest was in the Save the Children float, as she had been President of that charity since 1970, when she was 20. She fulfilled this rôle until she became the Patron in 2017, in succession to her mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout her life she has been very committed to Save the Children, and has visited its projects both in the UK and in innumerable overseas countries.
Another cause with which she naturally identified closely was Riding for the Disabled. The Cranleigh branch had been established in 1967 at Rowley’s Farm, with three riders, three helpers and two ponies! By 1975 it was operating in a large unused potato barn at Casi’s Farm, where six ponies were kept and over 50 disabled children had weekly rides. In 1985, when the RDA had developed new and improved facilities, the Princess returned to Cranleigh for their official opening. Today, the group has nine ponies, over 190 volunteers and gives weekly rides to over 200 adults and children from a wide area.
She also met children of some of the local schools and youth organisations. And enjoyed meeting some of the winners in the usual activities of the Cranleigh Show.
The Cranleigh History Society meets on the second Thursday of each month at 8pm in the Band Room. The next meeting is on Thursday October 8th when Tony Painter will speak on ‘Hillside chalk figures’.
This article first appeared in the October 2026 issue of Cranleigh Magazine. Pick up your free copy around the village, or read more at cranleighmagazine.co.uk.
