Thanks for party, Your Majesty

CELEBRATIONS for the Queen’s platinum jubilee took place across Henley and South Oxfordshire.

Thousands of people attended street parties, concerts, picnics and other events over the four-day bank holiday weekend.

Neighbours and different generations came together with some meeting for the first time in more than two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Jubilee beacons were lit and the National Anthem was sung as people showed their appreciation for her Her Majesty in the unprecedented 70th year of reign.

A number of streets in Henley were closed as residents brought out their tables and chairs for street parties with food and drink, games and fancy-dress.

Ukrainians now living in the area following the Russian invasion of their country joined in the celebrations. They had yellow and blue cakes made for them.

Goring and Streatley attempted to stage the world’s longest inter-county street party, with 3,500 people enjoying picnics and Prosecco at tables which stretched 1km between the two village high streets.

People gathered in churches and parish halls for concerts dedicated to the Queen, featuring her favourite pieces of music and songs from different decades of her reign.

Those who remembered her coronation in 1953 were transported back to that time with a series of Fifties-themed lunches and dances.

Wargrave welcomed more than 1,100 people to a jubilee lunch in the grounds of St Mary’s Church and two streets came together to celebrate as one in Lower Shiplake.

Beacons standing in fields and hills across the district were lit simultaneously on Thursday evening before the Queen lit the main beacon in London. Thousands of people attended lightings in Henley, Sonning Common, Rotherfield Greys, Goring Heath, Nuffield, Whitchurch, Watlington and Peppard.

Henley Mayor Michelle Thomas, who helped organise a party in her street, said: “I was delighted to join the celebrations and it was fantastic to see so many people enjoying themselves with friends, family and neighbours. The community really came together.”

See this week’s Henley Standard for 28 pages of reports and pictures on the local jubilee celebrations.