THE heavens may have opened at first but God saved the Queen's holiday when sunshine brought tens-of-thousands of people out to scores of events around the county for the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

The biggest party saw around 8,000 people gather on Hereford's King George V Playing Fields on Monday evening for a right royal knees-up befitting the £15,000 fireworks display climax.

The good-humoured crowd, made up mostly of families and children, cheered singer Turquoise Rogers - potentially the county's next Jessica Garlick - to top spot in the Pub Idol competition.

Villages and towns right across Herefordshire celebrated over the Jubilee weekend with differing levels of bunting and patriotic fervour but a similar resurgence of community spirit.

Pomp, ceremony and the odd silly costume added flavour to celebrations in Kingsland, Bromyard, Ross-on-Wye and Ledbury while some of the county's smallest villages like Bosbury led the way in bedecking their streets in Union flags.

The weekend had kicked off with lines of suited churchgoers on Sunday morning jostling for space on the pavements with devotees of the soccer World Cup in Japan heading for pubs to watch England's clash with Sweden on the television.

For full jubilee coverage visit www.thisishereford.co.uk/news/jubilee.html