Oh GOSH, what a day... The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall made our factory somewhere incredibly special on Friday. A month's, or in truth, nearly a year's preparations came together at the very last moment. The police, with friendly and sniffy spaniels and an (I trust) confusingly laid back German Shepherd searched rooms we didn’t even know we had for lurking Talibs, Tamils or other undesirables. The world of waste disposal was sustained by a continuous flow of skips from the site bearing the industrial waste of decades, sheds were cleared, cobbles scraped, yards scraped and scraped again and the country's most sophisticated lavatory was created in record time. Every flaking window, rusting staircase and scuffed door case was restored and polished clean. The shop rearranged, with orange lino floor gleaming with a previously unseen lustre, and across the track to the factory THE ARCH appeared.

Mark's demonstration of hands on management kept him in overalls all week and the outstandingly productive maintenance team numbers swelled by Owen Jones, Steve Perkins, Kevin Parker, Paul Brocklehurst, Trevor Barlow and Allen Blackwell worked ceaselessly to build the trellis triumphant arch designed by my father Peter Rice. Peter has designed the sets for operas, plays and ballets around the world since 1948 so for him this may have seemed run of the mill, but never the less when Thursday night found the studio, plus Jamie Shawcross and Mark, still cutting out silver ostrich feathers and sticking braid to coats of arms and banners, even he began to have his doubts...

Friday dawned snowy and raw and when Emma and I left the factory for the Kings Hall at 11am for the Royal Lunch it was a worrying scene of semi-controlled chaos that we drove away from. Returning at 1.30pm the scene was complete and a triumph. Then in a clatter of spurs and a swirl of exhausts, lords lieutenant and outriders, security men and press, THEY WERE HERE. Emma and I, and all four children, and my father lined up to greet the Prince and Duchess and the visit was on... The trip around the factory was a huge treat. Em and I both felt utterly proud of everybody and everything, all decked in new polka dot aprons or clean whites. The visitors were much more than appreciative and completely over rode our carefully organised timetables as they spoke to very nearly everybody and went from department to department, chatting and inspecting family photos, tattoos or other items of note. Walking through the Welsh language face of the arch, CROESO I BRIDGEWATER (a request of Owen who has the Prince of Wales's feathers in tattoo form on his shoulder), was a great success with the Prince and his secretary Manon, who briefly worried me by asking how we could even think about using such a rude word, before taking pity on me and confirming that it DID in fact mean "Welcome". By a not inconsiderable feat of man-management (thank you Steven Beeston) the entire factory was gathered in the yard to wave flags and to meet the distinguished guests. A LOT of hands were shaken and the visit was concluded with the Prince and Duchess decorating what will no doubt be our most valuable pieces of work. With Michael's substantial bunch of grape hyacinths in her hand, The Duchess and Prince wave and were off in a roar of engines and blue lights.

Tea and beer and sticky buns for all, then home. The team who transformed the site and oversaw the highly complex arrangements are Emma and my heroes. THANK YOU, Thank you and God Bless H.R.H. The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.

Matthew Rice