Beacons,parties,town criers, food and music swept the region for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee extended bank holiday weekend.
In an amazing show of respect for the 96-year-old monarch’s 70 years service to the UK and Commonwealth, Dumfries and Galloway’s towns, villages, work places and homes pulled out the stops to celebrate. Children – who were given Thursday and Friday as a holiday – had already marked the Jubilee in their schools in the run up to the weekend and now joined with their families in celebration.
And there was no getting away from a plethora of TV coverage of national events.
It has all promoted the Queen to officially thank the nation in a letter this week.
Across Dumfriesshire, images of “The Queen” popped up in windows and businesses including a house in Moffat, at The Old Stables at Beattock and at Boots on Dumfries High Street.
Boots store manager Heather Knaggs and staff decorated the shop and windows for the Jubilee and the cut-out of The Queen was hugely popular for photographs.
Heather said: “Lee Kaya works with us but is also a local artist and the artwork was fantastic. We had afternoon tea in the canteen for staff on Thursday and there were Jubilee cakes for customers.”
Ringers at St John’s Episcopalian Church, Lovers Walk, Dumfries, heralded the start of the UK’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations on Thursday morning by ringing the eight bells of St John’s – the only set in the whole of southern Scotland – which rang around the town.
The team of nine – tower captain Debbie Johnson, Heather Barrington, Kat Leask, Linda Scott, Guy Beaumont, Ian Cooper, John Higgon, Douglas Solley and Tony McIlwrick – rang in total for around 50 minutes. The chiming was echoed around the UK and Commonwealth simultaneously.
The chairman of Annan Community Council Allan Weild had a special role on Thursday afternoon when he was given the honour of being town crier and officially proclaimed the Platinum Jubilee from the front of the town hall.
It was one of a number of beacons lit across Dumfriesshire including Gretna Green outside the Stormont Village Hall; Wardlaw Hill, Caerlaverock; Criffel; Carsthorne; Johnstonebridge; High Germany Hill at Dunscore; Penpont in the field near the church; and at Langholm’s Malcolm Monument, Whita Hill, which was illuminated in colours for the occasion.
