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The Queens Platinum Jubilee. Well, what a fantastic weekend of activities. The weather held and the community came together to celebrate.

It all started with the Mayor visiting playgroups and primary schools to give the children a very special commemorative coin, the delight and excitement of receiving these coins was special.

We invited the Mayor and his family from our twinned town Luxeuil-Les-Bains to reignite our relations for the weekend and attend variety of events, to experience Wallingford as its best. This culminated with the planting of three roses in the rose garden in Castle Gardens.

Frédéric our twinned Mayor planted a rose called Elizabeth to mark the visit and the jubilee. Marcus our Mayor planted a rose for the community of Wallingford for all that they did during covid and Ken Lester our High Steward of Wallingford planted one for the Street Pastors who won the High Stewards Award this year.

Over the weekend our mayor and our twinned Mayor visited many well attended events the David Beasley photographic display in the Town Hall of Jubilee’s past a real trip down memory Lane. They had a back of stage visit to the Corn Exchange to hear all about the facility, how it works and what’s on.  The Hithercroft Sports Park had a free family day of fun which was great to experience all they have to offer, tennis, skittles, pétanque and much more.

Cholsey and Wallingford Railway was running with afternoon tea trips and to experience the newly installed Maidenhead Canopy was special indeed.

The carnival at home was again a great success with schools, homes and businesses taking part and showing off their creative skills.

The long weekend was topped off, even if the weather wasn’t so great the spirits were high with a picnic in the Castle Gardens where we came together to experience some amazing talent on stage to entertain us, the children played, donkeys kept us calm and hunting the Queens Corgi’s was a fun way to explore the grounds. The picnic ended with the whole of the community in Castle Gardens singing the National Anthem ‘God Save The Queen’.

Mayor of Wallingford Marcus Harris said “This is why I love Wallingford and being Mayor, a special weekend where memories were made. The children’s faces when they received the coins was a really lovely experience. Renewing our relationship with our twinned town Luxeuil-Les- Bains was a real success and we will work together to build on the foundations laid. Thank you to Cllr Ros Lester the organising committee and everyone who played a part in making celebrating the 70 years of the Queens reign a huge success.”

Frédéric Burghard commented “Thank you so much for the warm welcome to me and my family. The whole weekend was well organised and kept us entertained, with so much to see and do. Wallingford is such a lovely town and the people, their spirits shone through over the weekend. We look forward to working more closely together into the future.”