JUST as in April of this year, the wedding of HRH The Prince of Wales and the nation’s soon-to-be sweetheart Diana was celebrated with a national holiday.

Back in July 1981, Britain was awash with Royal Wedding fever, and Oxford was no exception.

The county saw competitions, huge crowds, and even a conga in the street as communities pulled together to celebrate the occasion.

“Throughout the area, people worked cheerfully for hours making food, putting out flags, laying tables and organising games to make sure their parties went off successfully,” reported the Oxford Mail the day after the wedding on July 30, 1981.

Liz Brandon hosted a street party in Nunnery Close, Blackbird Leys, for Kate and William’s wedding in April this year – but remembers Diana and Charles’s wedding 30 years before.

She said: “They were so different, I felt that Kate and Wills were so formal and so lovely, whereas I suppose Charles and Diana were so very posh.

“It was very, very, beautiful, but I think Kate and Wills’s was nearer to the people and just so perfect.”

About the wedding itself, the Oxford Mail spoke of “the fairytale princess”, as well as “frills, flounces, sequins and pearls”, on what was clearly Diana’s day.

And Oxfordshire was not without its representative at the actual event; Prince Charles’s goddaughter, India Hicks, a bridesmaid to Princess Di and then resident of Britwell Salome, near Wallingford.

Of course, this year the nation couldn’t help but compare the two days, nor could it ignore the presence of Diana at April’s ceremony, with Kate wearing her the princess’s sapphire and diamond engagement ring in memory.

While Diana wowed the crowds with a 25ft train, labelled by the Oxford Mail as “probably the most closely guarded fashion secret in history”, Kate won the nation’s hearts with her simple radiance.

The different locations both lent to the separate feels of the weddings, St Paul’s giving a regal grandeur to Charles and Diana, and Westminster Abbey, although still magnificent, gave a more intimate feel.