Village honoured to get a visit from ‘the Queen’

Mrs Hugill, 86, just nine months older than her Majesty, got into the Jubilee spirit yesterday, by donning a face mask of the Queen at a street party in Cherry Burton.

Mrs Hugill, who had come from Beverley for the day, thought the Queen had done “wonderfully well” over her long reign, adding: “She’s a lot fitter than me.”

As usual the celebrations were jinxed by the weather – incessant rain and temperatures of 11 degrees.

If it is any consolation, Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897 was also marred by deluges of rain, hailstones as “large as hens’ eggs” and even a tornado.

Organisers were concerned that people wouldn’t turn out, but they did, marquees in tow.

Cath Westby, one of the organisers and wife of vicar Martyn, said: “It has been pouring since first thing, and you do worry whether people will come out, so we were thrilled. People are just getting on with it.

“It has been a real group effort. It is a moment in history that people want to celebrate.

“People want to be involved in the community, they want to enjoy community spirit.”

Gail Currie, who had travelled from Cheshire for the occasion, said: “It is unbelievable, when we came round the corner to see so much effort in the rain is really quite remarkable for a small village.” Resident George Ramshaw, 82, said he’d like to see a lot more similar events: “It is a very good family occasion and it gets all the villagers together, which is lacking these days.”

Meanwhile in Beverley, residents of King’s Square were also taking the grim weather in their stride. “It is Bank Holiday weekend. What do you expect?” said one of the organisers Paula Smith. “It didn’t let us down. We were planning for it.

“Expect rain was the default setting.”

Traditional games included one which seems particularly pertinent today: “Guess the name of your neighbour.”

Ms Smith, who has lived in the Square five years, said she hadn’t known the names of neighbours down the other end of the road when they started planning the event back in March. Since then 150 people had signed up.

She said: “What I find is that people you have nodded to, now you know their names.”