PREPARATIONS are underway to light up the country to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
A beacon will be lit in the Barncroft, behind the Moor in Knutsford.
Live music will herald the start of the royal celebration and residents are invited to bake Jubilee tart to bring along to the event, which starts at 9pm on Thursday, June 2.
St Oswald’s Church, Lower Peover, will be lighting a beacon and ringing the church bells.
A rooftop beacon will also be lit on the summit of the Grade I listed church tower at St Luke's in Holmes Chapel after a proclamation by the town crier, followed by a piper who play a special bugle call entitled 'Majesty'.
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Altogether, more than 2,022 beacons will be lit at 9.45pm on Thursday, June 2 by charities, communities and faith groups across the UK.
Roger Turner, from St Oswald’s Church, said: “There is a long and unbroken tradition in our country of celebrating royal jubilees, weddings, coronations and special birthdays with the lighting of beacons – on top of mountains, churches, castle battlements, and in towns and village greens, farms, country parks and estates, and along the beaches surrounding our shores.”
Beacons will also shine in all 54 Commonwealth capitals to coincide with the principal one being lit in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
This will take the form of a lighting installation with The Queen’s Green Canopy ’Tree of Trees’ sculpture and projections onto the front of Buckingham Palace.
This innovative new way of taking part in the beacon lighting will reflect the royal family’s long history championing environmental causes.
Bruno Peek, the Queen's pageant-master, said:“It is wonderful to see the range of support for beacon lighting, which will highlight both the diversity and unity of the nation and the Commonwealth.
“The Queen has lit up our lives for 70 years through her dedicated service and commitment.
“We would like to light up the nation and the Commonwealth in her honour.”
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