Cottingley celebrates Queen's Birthday

Enjoying cake and a cuppa at the Queens birthday coffee morning

There was a fantastic turnout at the Queen's 90th Birthday celebrations at Cornerstone and St Michael's on 11 June. People from Cottingley and beyond joined our royal party and enjoyed meeting friends and neighbours over tea and cake.

Hundreds of local children had entered the ‘design a paper plate’ competition and there was an impressive display of all the entries by children from Cottingley Village Primary School, brownies and rainbows, and the nurseries. Prizes were awarded to the winners in each category – well done to everyone who took part!

Local people had also entered the ‘decorate a birthday cake fit for a Queen’ competition. All the entries were brilliant and the prizewinners were Muriel Baines, Mandy Clark and Camilla. Mandy very kindly donated her amazing peacock creation for the raffle which raised over £60 for charity.

The Youth Workers from Cornerstone ran a quiz and a crown making competition and Lily Eteson took 1st prize. Our All Sorts team also hosted themed children’s activities throughout the morning. All the children had a brilliant time building palaces out of lego, icing crown-shaped biscuits and making royal bracelets!

Towards the end of the morning there was a toast to the Queen, and Joyce Clapperton had made a birthday card which everyone signed and is to be sent to Buckingham Palace with our best wishes.

Our celebrations continued on Sunday morning when we held a Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen followed by a celebration of our community. We gave thanks for everyone who serves us in Cottingley – the shopkeepers, the medical staff, the teachers and community volunteers. Cottingley’s 90 Acts of Kindness were revealed and we celebrated the many ways in which kindness is demonstrated in our community each and every day. We were delighted that Baroness Margaret Eaton joined us and gave the reading during the service.

It was a special weekend of celebration here in Cottingley and our thanks go to everyone involved in the event, with very special thanks to Betty Pedley who put in an extraordinary effort arranging all the displays and ensuring the events went smoothly. Thanks also to Bill Holliday for his creative talents in making the film about our community shown during the service.