Remarkable double honour for Chichester’s Dame Patricia Routledge
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The bells will sound between 11 and 12 midday on Monday, February 17 as Dame Patricia’s adopted home city offers a hugely significant accolade, rarely accorded, to mark her 96th birthday.
The ringing comes not long after she received the Freedom of the Wirral, the place of her birth, in 1929.
“I can’t quite take it in!” Dame Patricia laughed. “It is almost too much!”
As for the Freedom of the Wirral, as she says: “It is the greatest honour a city or town can pay someone. I am thrilled beyond measure. It allows me to shepherd my sheep across the peninsula!
“It was an unforgettable day. I went up there to receive the honour from the mayor and the deputy mayors who were there. The three MPs of the Wirral were there and the Bishop of Birkenhead was there and people that I had invited. I had the present head of my primary school there. It was a wonderful school and there was also the head of the Birkenhead High School as it then was. And there were various representatives of the charities that I support. It was the most wonderful surprise. We had high tea with 30 guests and I did get to go to my primary school. They sent a little choir to sing to me on the occasion and I am still coming down from it!”
Dame Patricia, who has lived in Chichester for many years, grew up in the north-west, living there until she left for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School at the age of 22, after attending Liverpool University where she studied English language and literature. During her studies she was active with the drama and music societies before deciding on a career in the theatre.
Wirral councillors voted to approve her nomination for Freedom of the Borough earlier this year.
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