News
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visit the South West on a two day tour
11th July 2011
The Prince of Wales lamented the end of Harry Potter's wizarding adventures with a group of schoolchildren today.
During a visit to Devon, he told them it was "awful" that JK Rowling's blockbusting series of books - whose eighth and final film adaptation is released on Friday - was coming to an end.
His Royal Highness was in Salcombe, accompanied by The Duchess of Cornwall, when he made the remark to children from the town's primary school.
Sue Warne, the school's head of teaching and learning, said: "He asked them whether they liked reading, whether they liked Harry Potter and whether they had read the books and seen the films.
"He said how awful it was that there no more Harry Potter books to come."
The Duchess, dressed in a light peach-coloured dress, also pleased the waiting crowds by tucking into a honeycomb-flavour ice cream from Salcombe Ice Cream as she and The Prince went on a walkabout though Salcombe's narrow streets, visiting several shops which also included a butcher's and a sweet shop.
Later, a flotilla of small boats trailed The Prince as he boarded a launch for a brief waterborne tour of the harbour and river estuary.
His Royal Highness also came face to face with one of the area's culinary specialities - edible crab - while chatting with shellfishermen, and was presented with some locally-made Sharpham Savour cheese.
While touring a boatyard specialising in local yawl racing yachts, he was asked by boat owner Charles Thompson whether he would officially name his new boat.
The Prince replied: "I'm sorry but I don't have a bottle of champagne."
Afterwards Mr Thompson said: "It was probably just as well because the boat is called Great Bustard."
The Prince and The Duchess are on a two-day visit to the South West which will see them visit Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
His Royal Highness also found time to briefly visit one of the town's pubs, the appropriately named King's Arms, where he tried their beer before continuing the walkabout in the warm summer sun.
After leaving Salcombe, the royal couple went to Cullompton, where they visited the Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health.
One young onlooker, Daniel Hawes, aged 19 months, tried to run away after dropping his bouquet of flowers on the floor instead of passing them to The Duchess as she left, to much laughter from the royal visitor.
The couple parted for separate visits after leaving Cullompton, with The Duchess going to the Exmoor Pony Centre, Dulverton, Somerset. There, in her role as Patron of the Exmoor pony conservation group the Moorland Mousie Trust, she attended the official opening of the visitor centre and the launch of a reprint of a Moorland Mousie book.
At the same time The Prince went to Princetown, in the heart of Dartmoor, where he visited some of his tenants, David and Justine Colton, at the Duchy of Cornwall-owned Tor Royal farm. There he was shown some of their Dartmoor ponies.
He then attended a Dartmoor National Park Authority reception at the High Moorland Visitor Centre celebrating 60 years of national parks.
The 62-year-old heir to the throne joked to staff: "I do hope you have a very happy 60th birthday - it's a bit worrying that I am older than a national park."
The Prince then marked the occasion by unveiling a medieval stone cross found by ramblers on Dartmoor on an old post road, the King Way, named for his predecessor Charles I.
The Maltese-style cross has been restored and will be on display at the centre until September, when it will be erected close to where it was found at Lydford.
The Prince and The Duchess will continue their visit to the South West tomorrow, when they will travel to Cornwall, with the Eden Project amongst the venues they will visit.