The Norfolk pub pillow fight King Charles III will never forget

The 11-year-old Prince Charles and two of his friends were reportedly having the time of their lives in January 1959 when a rattled Duke of Edinburgh asked the landlady of a Broads' pub to intervene.

The royal party was on a coot shoot at Hickling Broad and had intended to stay at the thatched Whiteslea Lodge, which was prone to flooding.

Graham Turner who played with Prince Charles when they were both aged 11 when a royal shooting party sought refuge at the Pleasureboat Inn in Hickling in January 1959. (Image: Archant)

As a plan B rooms were booked at the Pleasureboat Inn, and they were pressed into action when the waters did indeed rise.

At the time landlady Gwen Amis and husband Alfred were sworn to secrecy and even locals drinking in the bar didn't know they were rubbing shoulders with royalty.

Mrs Amis's nephew Graham Turner, 73, who still lives in the village, remembers the events and playing with the gaggle of boys that were just like any others - the childhood games now being recast as an encounter with a King.

He said there were only three bedrooms in the pub, enough for the royal party, but a detective had to sleep in the bar.

The impromptu royal visit to the Pleasureboat Inn in Hickling made front page news in January 1959 and is still well-remembered today as Charles III accedes to the throne on the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II. (Image: Archant)

Although his aunt and uncle were pre-warned by the palace the Duke of Edinburgh and Charles turned up early and joined them for a cup of tea.

The party stayed for two nights and the visit was shrouded in secrecy, the press only finding out as they prepared to leave.

On the day of the shoot Charles went out with his father but decided to stay and play at the pub in the afternoon - and by chance Mr Turner, who was the same age, was there too and they all played together for around an hour.

"They were just normal boys," he said.

"It was an honour to have met him and spent a bit of time in his company as a young child."

Of the famous pillow fight he said: "The three boys were in one bedroom directly above the bar and there was quite a lot of commotion.

"Philip instructed my aunt to sort them out and they were squarely put in their place."

Merrily whacking each other with feather pillows was something the new King revealed he had never forgotten in a letter to Mrs Amis on her 90th birthday in 2000, the year before she died.

The then prince told her: “I have particularly fond memories of the time we stayed at the Pleasureboat Inn all those years ago and I have certainly never forgotten the famous landlady.

“The pillow fight is also a vivid memory but you will be glad to hear that I have become a little less violent in my behaviour as middle age creeps on.”