Queen Elizabeth opens fish museum

Feb 11, 2010, 12:04 GMT

Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip opened a fishing museum this week.

The royals visited the True's Yard Fishing Heritage Museum at King's Lynn - close to their Sandringham estate - to open a new wing.

The museum houses a history of the fishing industry on England's East coast, famous for its Herring, and the extension to the museum includes a curing house, allowing visitors to see how kippers and smoked fish are produced.

Chairman of the museum's trustees Dr Paul Richards told fishupdate.com: "It was a great honour for the queen and Prince Philip to visit us. She showed a great interest in the buildings we have restored and she was fascinated by the stories about the people who once lived here."

Another source added: "It is brilliant the queen has come to visit here. Just before they left, Price Phillip asked to sign the visitor's book - which the staff rushed to give to him - and they both put their signatures in it."

King's Lynn was a traditional fishing community for hundreds of years, although its fishery infrastructure was largely demolished in the 1960s.

Although a fishing fleet still sails regularly from King's Lynn, the community's traditional way of life is only preserved in the museum.