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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Tuesday, 9 April 2013. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
CROWDS lined the streets of Oxford City Centre as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived to present Maundy Money to 87 men and 87 women at Christ Church Cathedral. The sun shone despite the gloomy weather earlier in the week, although the temperature was never above four degrees Celsius as the recipients made their way across the road from St Aldate's Church, to the Cathedral.
St Aldate's had been the venue for coffee for the recipients and their companions, before the big event.
Some were chauffeured to the cathedral in a golf buggy, driven by a uniformed Buckingham Palace driver. Once inside they awaited the arrival of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, who travelled to Oxford by helicopter and were driven into Christ Church, through Tom Quad in their Bentley. After the hour-long service, the recipients were treated to lunch at the Great Hall while the Queen and the Duke went to a reception in the Deanery before a lunch with civic dignitaries at Oriel College.
Evelyn Goss, from Sherington, near Milton Keynes, was one of the recipients.
Speaking straight after the service, she said: "It was wonderful.
The Queen actually made eye to eye contact with me as she gave me the coins. " Evelyn works for her church, as well as volunteering for Willen Hospice and Shop and an addiction charity. Geoffrey Cross from St Mary's Church, Banbury, said: "It was quite amazing, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. " Geoffrey was a churchwarden for more than 10 years and serves as electoral roll officer at St Mary's. Philip Greenaway, from Dorchester, said: "I felt pretty humble standing there with the Queen giving me those purses.
I didn't expect that at all, it was amazing. "Hilda Barney, from St Mary's, Headington, said: "It was wonderful.
We had the best seats, right behind the Queen and Prince Philip.
The service was wonderful.
It was such an honour to curtsey to the Queen. "After the service the Cathedral officials had arranged to let in some of the public who were lining the streets.
They waved Union Jacks along with children from Christ Church Cathedral School, as the Queen and Prince Philip left for lunch. The Maundy traditionMaundy Thursday - the Thursday in Holy Week - commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, when he washed his disciples' feet.
The word 'Maundy' comes from the Latin word 'mandatum' which means command and refers to Christ's instruction to his disciples at the Last Supper to love one another. In the past, monarchs have distributed food and clothes to the poor, and even washed their feet, following Jesus's example.
Nowadays, the Queen visits a Cathedral to make the presentation on Maundy Thursday in a ceremony that dates back to the 13th century. The service used to happen in London, but early in her reign the Queen decided that the service should take place at a different venue every year.
In fact, this is - significantly - the only occasion when the Monarch travels to the people to make an award.
She is known to view the occasion as an important part of her Holy Week devotions. The Queen has distributed Maundy on all but four occasions since coming to the throne in 1952, but this is the first time she has done so in Oxford.
In fact the last time the Maundy was distributed in Oxford appears to have been 1644 when Charles I made his headquarters in Oxford and lived in the Deanery.
Since the 15h century, the number of Maundy coins distributed and the number of recipients has been related to the Sovereign's age, which means that this year 87 men and 87 women from the three counties of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire were invited to the ceremony.
Each had been nominated by the local clergy. The recipients were given two purses: a white purse containing 87p in unique Maundy coins and a red purse containing a £5 coin and a 50p coin commemorating the 60 th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation.
All the coins were newly minted this year.
You can find out more on the Royal Mint website. During the Service, officers of the Royal Almonry escort the Queen to those who are to receive the Royal Maundy gifts.
The Lord High Almoner wears a linen towel round his waist symbolizing the foundations of the ritual by Jesus. The Yeomen provide a guard of honour for the Queen, and also carry the Maundy Money on six Alms dishes. The choir of Christ Church Cathedral were joined for the occasion by the Choir of the Chapel Royal. You can download the Royal Maundy 2013 order of service or find out more about what happens in the service here.
Hunting for unsung heroes
THE Revd Dr Amanda Bloor, Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford, was central to the search for unsung heroes to receive Maundy Money at Christ Church. "The Bishop was responsible for gathering names and submitting them to the Palace to be nominated for Maundy Money.
My role has been to collate the names, addresses and information about nominees," says Amanda, who received clear criteria from the Palace.
Nominees had to be over 70 and to have done good things for the Church and their communities. Amanda, whose role in the actual service involved praying for the Queen while standing just a few feet away from her, said: "They were not looking for those who already get recognition for high profile jobs, but for people that often do things that no one else is particularly interested in. "Some of the stories were fantastic.
You hear about people in their 90s looking after the 'elderly' in their communities, people finding transport to drive people to hospital appointments, people who lock and unlock their churches or set up the chairs ready for services.
The Queen signs the visitors' book.
"It's a good reminder to us in what can seem like a very ageist society that life doesn't stop at 70.
People are using the skills and experience they have gained over their lives to do great things and it has been enormously exciting to be part of this.
I have been very humbled by the stories I have heard and by the modesty of those people nominated as recipients.
Some of them have phoned up and asked if this was meant for them."
How it all worked
THE HUGE logistical operation behind the Maundy Money service was overseen by Cathedral Registrar, John Briggs. From the golf buggy, driven by a Buckingham Palace driver in uniform to help the recipients reach the Cathedral, to the computer programme used for the seating plan, John supervised every detail. He puts the smooth running of the event down to plenty of meetings with officials of Buckingham Palace, Thames Valley Police, the Diocese and the Lord Lieutenant's office, along with other parties.
Planning started back in September, but the Monarch's visit was shrouded in secrecy until January.
Worksheets were prepared and the co-operation between everyone involved made sure the event was a huge success. A big challenge was how to seat 174 recipients, along with their companions and other dignitaries and officials in to such a small cathedral, while giving the general public some opportunity to get in. "The cathedral is small and doesn't have great big open spaces that allow you to encompass lots of different people.
We actually got a computer programme that allowed us to create a detailed chair by chair plan and identify where everyone was going to sit.
Buckingham Palace staff said it was the most effective uses of technology they had seen in terms of trying to allocate spaces for an event like this," said John. Christ Church normally seats up to 900 people, but the capacity was significantly reduced because the layout was changed to allow the Queen to reach each recipient. "We wanted to give the public some modest chance of getting in and we did a ballot for tickets, asking people to write to us if they wanted to come.
We were able to allocate 50 seats that way," said John. While the seats for the general public were limited, the most eager people who had come into town with the hope of catching a glimpse of the Queen were allowed in to a special area of Tom Quad at 12. 30pm, to wave at her as she left. "Staff at York Minster, where the Royal Maundy Service was held last year told me they had underestimated public interest in the event," said John.
"We wanted to be able to give some level of public access and we realised that we could let some people in, while others lined St Aldate's Street and the High Street. "Another challenge was catering for the recipients and companions, who traditionally receive a lunch after the Maundy service, especially as the Christ Church College catering staff would be packing up and leaving for the Easter Holidays.
"We managed to combine the Great Hall and the McKenna Room at the side of it," said John. "The whole operation has been a reasonably straightforward process thanks to regular meetings and worksheets to help us all keep abreast of developments," John added.
Reports by Jo Duckles and Sarah Meyrick