THE plaque that went with Dartmouth's missing Queen's tree was probably hidden away to save the tree from drunken, anti-royalist sailors, it has been revealed.

Both the Queen and Prince Philip planted trees either side of the Old Dartmothian shelter on the edge of Coronation Park during their notable royal visit to the town in 1962.

The trees had plaques to go with them spelling out who had planted them and when.

The plaques have spent years stored away in the district council's Royal Avenue Gardens depot for safe keeping.

Now Old Dartmothian and ex-boatbuilder Chris Rudlesden reckons the plaques were deliberately removed to stop the trees from being targeted by vandals.

Chris, who then lived at Sandquay was a 14-year-old schoolboy when he witnessed the planting of the two trees, either side of the shelter. 

He is convinced that the plaques were removed to stop the trees being vandalised. Chris said he walked by them every morning on his way to school in Torquay.

 'At that time there was a private training ship moored in the river for ordinary seamen.

'They would get tanked up in the local pub and then vandalise the trees on their way back,' he said. 'I'm convinced that the plaques were taken away to protect them.'

Chris stepped forward after South Hams Council appealed for help in solving the mystery of just where the trees had originally been planted.

Although the site of the trees has been solved South Hams Council has been left with a new mystery – whether the trees are actually still there.

There is uncertainty over what type of trees were planted by the royal couple and whether they survived – although the consensus at the moment is that they didn't.

South Hams Council is still looking at various options for the two plaques which include planting another pair of trees in the same spot or somehow incorporating the plaques in the avenue of diamond jubilee trees due to be planted in Townstal Road.

The council is even appealing to townspeople to come up with their own ideas for the two 1962 royal plaques.

Meanwhile, more memories have been surfacing of the 1962 tree planting.

Former Dartmothian Christine Dean was working for the old Dartmouth Borough Council back in 1962 and got the afternoon off to attend the royal visit.

Christine, who was then Christine Woodward, says she still remembers the day the Queen came to town.

'We were given the afternoon off to go to Coronation Park but we had to be all dolled up in case the Queen came and spoke to us.

'All the girls who worked in the town clerk's office were taken to Coronation Park in a taxi. We had to be suitably dressed in nice summer posh frocks, hats and gloves.

'It was very amusing. As we were being driven through Duke Street someone shouted out there's the Queen because of our posh hats.

'In the end we were very much in the background and she didn't talk to us,' added Christine.