More than 900,000 people visit it annually, making it one of Hampshire’s most popular attractions.

But the prospect of creating a 1,400-acre country park between Clanfield and Petersfield wasn’t universally popular when the idea was floated in the early 1970s.

Queen Elizabeth Country Park is 50 years old this month, having been officially opened by Her Late Royal Highness in August 1976.

PP QECP Queen College Street
As there wasn't a dual carriageway back then, HRH The Queen made her way through Petersfield on the old A3. (Petersfield Post Archives)
QECP-Queens-Visit-1976-3745e.jpeg
Crowds on Butser got within a few feet of the monarch during the August 1976 royal visit. (Hampshire County Council/Buriton Memory Bank)
PP Samantha Wallis Posies Queen Butser QECP
Samantha Wallis hands a bunch of posies to Her Late Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II during the royal visit to QECP. (Petersfield Post archives)

The monarch, who was met by the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, the Earl of Malmesbury, Michael Mates MP, and the chairman and chief executive of EHDC, was treated to a 90-minute tour.

Her Majesty’s first stop was the £160,000 visitor centre, designed by Sir Hugh Casson, the British architect behind the famous Elephant House at London Zoo.

The Queen spent ten minutes touring the exhibitions inside the centre and saw a slide show with a recorded commentary on the life of Butser shepherd John Heath.

She then toured QECP in an open-top Range Rover, taking in everything from woodcarving and sheep hurdle-making to the Iron Age Farm demonstration area on Butser Hill.

“Although the Queen set a fast pace at times, it was a relaxed affair, Her Majesty passing within feet of the patiently waiting crowds,” wrote the Post.

PP QECP Visitor Centre A3 1976
Few cars on the A3 ahead of the visitor centre's official opening by the Late HRH Queen Elizabeth in 1976. (Iliffe/Petersfield Post archives)
QECP 50 years
Here's to the next 50 (Hampshire County Council)

Yet while the same report called the visit “a day for patriotism” it also acknowledged the park’s creation had not been trouble-free.

There was much resentment when plans were first announced and publicly debated in 1970, with proposals for a monorail and series of woodland drives through the park being largely derided.

While the Countryside Act 1968 paved the way for today’s country parks, roots were laid beforehand when Hampshire County Council purchased the Butser Hill land from the Mapledurham Estate in the 1960s.

And the foresight paid off, as more than 95,000 people visited the park in its first four months.