A network of flaming tributes to the Queen will stretch throughout the country on Thursday.

Beacons marking the Platinum Jubilee will be lit at 9.45pm sites including the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park, Hillsborough Castle and the Queen’s estates of Sandringham and Balmoral, along with the tops of the UK’s four highest peaks.

The first beacons will be lit in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, and the final one in the central American country of Belize.

The principal beacon outside the Palace – a 21-metre-tall Tree of Trees sculpture for the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative – will be illuminated by a senior member of the royal family, and images will be projected on to the Palace.

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The history of jubilee beacons

Lighting beacons to celebrate Royal Jubilees, Weddings and Coronations is a long-held tradition.

The flaming displays might appear on top of mountains, church and cathedral towers, castle battlements, on town and village greens, country estates, parks and farms, along beaches and on cliff tops.

In 1897, beacons were lit to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. In 1977, 2002 and 2012, beacons commemorated the Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees of The Queen, and in 2016 Her Majesty’s 90th birthday.

On Thursday, there are four types of beacons being lit:

  • A free-standing beacon fuelled by bottle gas
  • A beacon brazier with a metal shield
  • A bonfire beacon
  • Bishops Frome Strawman

Platinum Jubilee beacons in Southampton

Daily Echo: Lewis Wilde tests of one of the gas-fuelled beacons he has made which will be used to signal the start of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee. Picture: PALewis Wilde tests of one of the gas-fuelled beacons he has made which will be used to signal the start of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee. Picture: PA

Knowle Park – Knowle Park in Fair Oak, from 8.30pm

Queen’s Peace Fountain – Queen’s Peace Fountain in East Park, 9.45pm

Hythe Marina Association – The Bund, Hythe Marina

Hound Parish Council – Cricket Field, Netley Abbey, Southampton

West End Parish Council – Hatch Grange, West End, Southampton

Copythorne Jubilee 2022 Working Group, Copythorne Parish Hall Committee and 2nd New Forest North (Stanley's Own) Scout Group – Stanley's Own Scout Headquarters, Romsey Road, Copythorne, Southampton

Calshot Tower NCI Unit – Calshot Castle, Calshot

Fawley Parish Council – Gang Warily Recreation Centre, Fawley, Southampton

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