Princess set to open £5m hospice

One of Shropshire's favourite royals, Princess Alexandra, was due to arrive in the county this afternoon to open the new £5 million Severn Hospice at Apley Castle.

The Princess will also dip into the region's industrial past when she unveils the brand new Kiln Experience exhibition at Coalport China Museum which brings to life the workings of a kiln using sound and light.

The Princess will be rubbing shoulders with a host of Shropshire's top brass as she makes her way around Telford & Wrekin.

They will include Lord-Lieutenant of Shropshire, Mr Algernon Heber-Percy, and chairman of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Mr Barrie Williams.

At the new Severn Hospice, the Princess will meet staff, patients and hospice chairman Peter Paulson, before unveiling a plaque to officially open the centre, which was funded by donations received during a four-year campaign.

At Coalport China Museum, the Princess will meet staff and young people as they attend a ceramics workshop.

The Princess will be following in the footsteps of her grandmother, Princess Mary of Teck, who later became Queen Mary and visited the Coalport China Works in 1900.

During the tour she will see the national collections of Coalport and Caughley china, along with demonstrations of bone china-flower making, china painting, and throwing on the wheel.