A man who documented the Queen's last trip to Macclesfield has shared a short film reminiscing on the Royal Visit, following her death.

Simon Leah, who has worked in the IT department for King's School Macclesfield for the last 37 years, filmed Her Majesty's second and final Macclesfield visit, which was to the school in 2002.

Queen Elizabeth II visited as part of a packed Commonwealth Games tour of the country, which coincided with the year of her Golden Jubilee.

Her Majesty was given a tour of the school by then-King's School Headteacher Dr Stephen Coyne.

A video released this year showing footage of the Queen and Prince Phillip's 2002 King's School Macclesfield visit has garnered over 1000 views. (Image - Simon Leah)

Mr Leah was filming from a vantage point, and earlier this year decided to retell the story with a short documentary about the day.

"During the walk-about I was just meters away from the Queen and Phillip, it was probably the highlight of my career to be honest", said Simon.

"I was sat filming it from a window of our upper staff room.

"I've had scraps of the old footage of the Royal Visit lying around for years, I thought it would be good to have tied it together into something.

The Queen accepts gifts across the road from the King's School Gates of Rememrance in July 2002. (Image - Simon Leah)

"I've still got the same camera model that I used for the Royal visit.

"Unfortunately, my footage doesn't have a lot of sound in it, so I had to think of something I could tie it with without the it being a bit flat.

"So when I came up with the idea to revisit the footage for the Platinum Jubilee, it was the perfect opportunity to get the Headteacher of the time to come talk about it to the current Headteacher on camera."

Simon filmed ex-Head Dr Stephen Coyne and current King's School Headteacher Jason Slack earlier this year to recount the Royal Visit, to mark the 20 year anniversary of the visit, and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

Hundreds of security and even more members of the public were present for the day. (Image - Simon Leah)

"The Queen's visit on 24th July 2002 began at 1.50pm with a tour of The King's School's main building.

It was there that Dr Coyne, King's School Headteacher from September 2000 to August 2011, showed Her Majesty a typical classroom from 1502 and one from 2002. Following the tour, they were taken to a large marquee on the front field which had a fair celebrating Cheshire.

The visit concluded with The Queen and Prince Phillip doing a walk-about meeting the people of Macclesfield outside the school on Cumberland Street.

In the 16 minute video, which can be viewed at the top of this article, Dr Coyne recalled his favourite moments of the visit and gave compliments to the Queen.

The Royal Visit came together to honour the 500th anniversary of King's School, which in recent years moved from their Cumberland Street campus to their new site in Prestbury. (Image - Simon Leah)

"After taking her on a walkway to meet the people of Cheshire her face brightened up, she was a great professional who clicked into gear and was waving and smiling at everyone," said Dr Coyne in the 16 minute documentary.

"There wasn't a lot of conversation, as I was saying 'this is what we are doing now ma'am'. 

"I wasn't allowed to ask her questions. I remember we took her to one of the people who was showing off Cheshire and she asked a question and I was quaking, as I was told not to ask her questions, but the Queen just responded perfectly normally."

Everyone on site for the Royal visit had a ticket, nearby residents such as those on Coare Street were invited. And Dr Coyne even revealed in the docushort that a King's governor sacrificed their ticket to see The Queen because they felt someone else would be more worthy.

Dr Stephen Coyne and Queen Eliizabeth II following the unveiling of the 2002 500-year celebratory plaque for King's School Macclesfield. (Image - King's School Macclesfield)

Dr Stephen Coyne today. He was Headteacher of King's School for 11 years. He is pictured in 2022. His 2002 Macclesfield meeting with the Queen was the second time he had met her. (Image - Simon Leah / King's School)

Mr Leah, who is from Macclesfield himself, also had this to say about the day when speaking with Macclesfield Nub News.

"I remember being so excited about it, especially being able to be on site with my camera.

"I have vivid memories of the day before when the school went through the whole security process.

"They searched every nook and cranny of the school and even brought sniffer dogs.

The Queen also enjoyed a performance of Macclesfield schoolchildren during the tour. (Image - Simon Leah)

"On the day itself, there was a mixture of nervousness and excitement at the same time, realising that 'I am filming the Queen here at my place of work'.

"I love working at King's School, I've been here all my working life."

Simon used a Sony DCR-TRV110E PAL camera to capture the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, which was one of the first digital cameras.

He also used a Panasonic Hi-Fi Stereo MS4 VHS Camera.

Special thanks to life-long camera fanatic Simon Leah for speaking to us and supplying his footage for this article. Here he is pictured in 1985, when he first started to up the ante in his photography and videography. (Image - Simon Leah)

The Queen had planned to visit Macclesfield again 18 years later, but it was called off due to coronavirus.

Macclesfield: You can watch a video of the Queen's first Macclesfield visit from 53 years earlier by clicking here.

If Simon's footage and the interview regarding it wasn't enough for you, there is also more footage of the Queen's 2002 visit available to view here.

Macclesfield: Do you have memories of the King's School visit? Join in the conversation on our social media.

One of the vintage cameras Simon used for the special event. Buying secondhand models such as these cost hundreds of pounds online. (Image - Simon Leah)

More images from the King's School Royal Visit can be viewed on this link.

Macclesfield, you can find more information about King's School on their website.

Make sure you watch the full video reliving the visit at the top of this article by clicking the red play button, or this link.

For more reaction to The Queen's passing in Macclesfield, please click here and here.

See Also: The Queen's Macclesfield memories in videos and pictures