Prince Charles paid the Cheshire Regiment a visit while it was taking part in exercises on Wednesday.

The prince, who is the unit's commander-in-chief, inspected troops in Thetford Forest, Norfolk.

He also saw the awarding of oak leaves to Private Richard Kershaw, 18, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, in a regimental tradition which dates back nearly 300 years.

The prince, dressed in combat gear, then impressed the troops by nimbly scaling a wire fence with no difficulty.

The prince won praise for tackling a fence

"He was very agile," said Captain Jed McInally, who was one of a number of senior officers looking on.

"There are a number of acceptable ways of getting over a fence quickly and he did it in a very respectable manner.

"Certainly we would have had no complaints if a soldier had used the same method to get over the fence quickly.

"It was a tricky fence to negotiate, it would have posed problems for a lot of younger men and the way he got over it was very impressive."

The regiment's manoeuvres centred on a mock Serbian village, designed to copy conditions the soldiers would be likely to find when on active duty.

The tradition of the oak leaves comes from the battle of Dettingen in 1743.

King George II decreed that the leaf should form part of the regimental badge after soldiers from the Cheshire Regiment saved him from capture.