[Bob Dobson]

We can be fairly certain that a Royal Visit to Accrington in 1216 was the first on record. The visitor was King Alexander of Scotland, who was accompanied by several important Scots. Whilst in town, Alexander signed and placed the signing on a document granting a charter to a hospital in York. About a century ago, this document was found by Rev Walter Burgess, minister of Accrington's Unitarian Church in Oxford St and he wrote about his find in one of his 25 regular articles on local historical matters in the Observer