'Get your tools, The Queen's broken down' Walsall mechanic recalls repairing royal Rolls Royce

As people across the West Midlands look back on their own personal memories of the Queen, one Wolverhampton mechanic recalls the moment he saved the late monarch's tour of the region.

In 1977, Queen Elizabeth II embarked on a tour of the Midlands, alongside The Duke of Edinburgh, as part of her Silver Jubilee celebrations, and visited places such as Solihull, Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

Fred Budd, a mechanic at Castec Motors in Wolverhampton who specialise in Rolls Royce's, recalls the moment when he stopped work to watch The Queen's custom-made Silver Jubilee car leave the city.

He says as the car drove by, the garage of mechanics joked about the car breaking down and needing help.

"She drove past the garage where we worked and of course, there's always the banter that if it breaks down we can repair it and then we went back to work," said Fred.

The UK's longest reigning monarch was on her way towards Walsall and Dudley when her Rolls-Royce Phantom Landaulette failed to start and threw a spanner in the works.

Fred, who was 26 at the time, was on his lunch break alone when his service major rushed in to tell him a royal Rolls Royce needed fixing.

Speaking to ITV News Central, he said: "I was in the canteen eating my chips when the service major rushed in and they actually said 'Quick Fred get your tools The Queen's broken down!'"

"We got to work doing what we do and got it running."

"I suppose in the back of my mind I was thinking I hope I get it running with all these people here," he said.

He added: "We've done a lot of celebrity cars over the years but she [Queen Elizabeth II] is by far the most important I would say."

A few days after the mechanics had fixed the Rolls-Royce Landaulette, a letter from Her Majesty The Queen arrived at the dealership in Wolverhampton.

Fred says it was addressed to Bruce Stanley, the service major at the time, however, Mr Stanley handed out copies to mechanics.

"That was nice, something to keep, something to prove you did it, and weren't just winding people up," said Fred.

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