For Dame Shirley Bassey, the Welsh vocalist famous for singing the sultry theme tunes in the Bond films Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever, the credits very nearly rolled last night.

With her helicopter struggling in thick fog and strong winds as the singer made her way back from performing at the Glastonbury festival, Dame Shirley's pilot realised it was unsafe to land at her hotel and so opted to make an emergency descent at a nearby school instead.

After narrowly clearing trees and power cables, the helicopter eventually touched down on the playing fields of Collingwood College in Camberley, Surrey, at 8pm.

However, having transferred from one muddy field in Somerset to another on the southern outskirts of London, Dame Shirley's ordeal had far from ended. With the school gates locked and the veteran singer and her pilot trapped inside the grounds, the pair were forced to contact the school's caretaker to unlock the gates.

As she waited to make alternative transport arrangements, and with the wind still howling, Dame Shirley made a surprise visit to a neighbour, who allowed her to use the toilet.

"The pilot got out of the aircraft and came over to ask us where he was," Rosella Tew, 68, who lives near the school in Camberley and who saw Dame Shirley's helicopter land, said.

"Then Dame Shirley got out. She was dressed in a yellow raincoat and wellies.

"She asked us: ’Do any of you live in these houses?’ and I said yes and offered to make her a cup of tea. But she said: ’I don’t need a cup of tea, I need the bathroom’ and she went to the house of one of my neighbours.

"Dame Shirley was so lovely and so normal. After using the loo, she posed for pictures with us. She held my hand for a photo. She was quite calm and I could not believe how down to earth she was.

"I always expect these big stars to be all snooty but she was not, she was so lovely."

After the emergency landing, a member of the school’s ground staff then stayed up to guard the helicopter all night before it was finally able to take off again at 8.30am today, when the weather cleared.

Dame Shirley, who had originally been scheduled to land at Pennyhill Park hotel and spa, near to the school, is believed to have eventually found somewhere else to stay at the last minute yesterday night.

Jerry Oddie, the college's head teacher, who was called by the caretaker shortly after the Welsh singer landed, said: "The weather here was terrible last night and I suppose the pilot took one look at our school field, which is very big, and decided to put down there.

"If we’d known, then we would have put on a better reception."

Earlier in the evening, Dame Shirley had wooed the rained-soaked Glastonbury crowd as she performed Hey Big Spender and The Lady Is A Tramp, two of her biggest hits, as the festival drew to a close.

The 70-year-old dealt with the oozing mud caused by torrential rainfall by donning diamond-encrusted wellies and kept the rain off her feathered Julien MacDonald outfit by covering up in a pink dressing gown.

Michael Eavis, the Glastonbury organiser, said: "I hope her journey back didn’t spoil her enjoyment of the festival," adding that her appearance had been "one of the highlights of the weekend".

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