TWO girls with royal connections will fly from Spain to be bridesmaids at the wedding of a butcher's daughter in a North village church next year.

Sonia Murray, daughter of Alan and Miriam Murray, who have a butcher's shop in Barton, near Darlington, will marry at Middleton Tyas Parish Church.

Her bridesmaids will be Victoria and Christina, granddaughters of Princess Teresa of Bavaria, for whom Mrs Murray was a nanny more than 20 years ago.

She lived for seven years in Madrid and looked after the princess's daughters, Myrta and Sonia, after whom she later named her own daughter.

While there, she and the family regularly visited the palace of Princess Teresa's relatives Prince Juan Carlos and his wife Sofia, who are now the Spanish king and queen.

Myrta and Sonia will attend the wedding on July 2, and as well as their daughters, Victoria and Christina, who are both seven, they will bring an older daughter, Sol, to the ceremony.

The bride to be, a 25-year-old speech therapy assistant at Darlington Memorial Hospital, is marrying Christopher Scarr, of Darlington. The reception will be at Blackwell Grange Hotel, in the town.

As Mrs Murray served in the busy shop yesterday, she spoke of her life as a nanny in Princess Teresa's large mansion in the Spanish capital.

She said: "Teresa's father was related to Queen Victoria, and she had cousins in a number of royal families in other countries. But her daughters were never called princesses and neither are her granddaughters.

"I greatly enjoyed working for the family and have kept in touch ever since. It is lovely that some of them are coming for the wedding and that the two girls will be bridesmaids."