Walks and awards among plans for Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in West Norfolk
Two new walking and cycling routes are set to be created in West Norfolk to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The project is among several initiatives which were outlined this week, as preparations intensify for the main celebration weekend in June.
A special musical performance is set to take place at the Royal Norfolk Show this summer, while a new series of awards will also be offered.
And a new website, where members of the public will be invited to post tributes to the monarch as well as details of their own events, is set to go live next week.
Deputy Lieutenant James Bagge said this week: “It’s an opportunity to show Norfolk at its best.”
Four new walking and cycling routes, which it is hoped will be launched later in the summer, were outlined during a media briefing on Wednesday.
Two of them are in West Norfolk – from Gayton to Castle Acre and Heacham to Lynn respectively.
Officials hope more routes will be created in the months ahead, though the final launch dates will depend on the co-operation of both Norfolk County Council and individual landowners.
The trails will be marked and signed with unique Jubilee markers and promoted as the Jubilee Trails.
Officials also say that, where appropriate trees will be planted along the trails and dedicated to the nationwide Queen’s Green Canopy initiative.
Full details of the routes will form part of a new Platinum Jubilee Norfolk website, which is set to go live on Monday.
The site has been partially available for several weeks, to enable residents to share details of events in their communities.
But, from next week, it will also feature details of a range of other planned celebrations including a musical salute planned for the Royal Norfolk Show in late June, plus a new series of challenge awards, conceived in part as a tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh almost exactly a year on from his death.
Challenges can be completed in any of four areas – Physical, Sustainable, Learning and Celebration.
The county jubilee website, designed by the Norwich-based agency, Brand Experience, will also allow residents to post messages on the theme of “What the Queen means to me”.
Most of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations will be centred around the extended four-day bank holiday weekend planned for early June.
Over 90 beacons are already set to be lit in Norfolk on the first night of that long weekend, Thursday, June 2, more than any other county in the country.
The following day, churches are being invited to join a collective bellringing to coincide with the service of thanksgiving which is to take place at St Paul’s Cathedral, while special community lunches are a further suggestion for communities to enjoy the occasion.
A Platinum Jubilee Fund has been set up to help meet the cost of events and, it is hoped, to provide a longer term legacy from the celebrations.
Norfolk’s Lord Lieutenant, Lady Dannatt, said: “The Queen is deeply loved here in Norfolk.
“In return the county wants to demonstrate our affection and enormous gratitude for Her Majesty’s 70 years of remarkable service.
“I can think of no better way of honouring Her Majesty the Queen during her extraordinary Platinum Jubilee Year than this.”
To find out more information, visit www.platinumjubileenorfolk.org.
