The Sergeant of the Mace welcomed us and took us through to meet the Lord Mayor. She explained that she was going to 'dress' the Lord Mayor in his robes, as he had another important engagement to go to when we left.

 He spoke to the children about his role and answered a wide range of questions from them as he was being dressed. He invited Lilah to feel the weight of the robes and Poppy held the very heavy chain, which is pure gold and has the names of every Lord Mayor on the links.

He took us on a tour of the Lord Mayor's Parlour and the Lady Mayoress's office. He explained that this had all been rebuilt after the war as the Guildhall had suffered heavy bombing. We left his parlour and went into the corridor where he showed us the commemorative Charters with the royal seals, the first one dating back to 1194! There was a wonderful display of silver, the oldest piece dating to the early 1700's and worth over £1,000,000 alone. We also saw the keys to the city presented to Portsmouth in 1812 by the Prince Regent.

We were very lucky to be able to visit the council chamber as a meeting had just finished. The Lord Mayor explained what happened at a meeting and answered more questions. He then had to leave for his next engagement.

 The children thanked him for his time and he thanked them for being such a nice group.

 The children did the school proud, as usual!

 Thanks to Mrs Metcalfe for organising the visit.