LUCKY couple Darren and Jayne King are in for a right royal weekend after winning tickets to one of the Queen's Jubilee garden parties at Buckingham Palace.

Darren and Jayne, of Wigginton, York, won the pair of tickets by ringing a special telephone line, after the palace announced that a limited number would be available for ordinary members of the public.

Then they received a letter saying they had been chosen as two of the lucky ones.

They will be attending the party on Saturday, when the highlight will be a Proms concert.

Darren said: "It was brilliant. We couldn't believe it to be honest."

The couple have been told that they will receive a picnic lunch and bottle of champagne as part of their prize and will be able to take a camera.

They plan to make a weekend of it, staying in London on the Saturday evening, while their children, Joshua, eight, and Abigail, four, are looked after by grandma, Isobel Reynolds.

Meanwhile, closer to home there will be a double celebration to mark the Jubilee and the 50th anniversary of the North York Moors National Park on Monday.

A special beacon will be set alight at Sutton Bank to music from a medieval choir from Pickering, and there will be guided walks led by local archaeologist and Channel 4's Time Team veteran Steve Sherlock, and local librarian Peter Turton.

Mike Pratt, from the North York Moors National Park, said Sutton Bank had a long history of human occupation.

"It is likely that ceremonial activities, such as lighting beacons, are likely to have taken place at the site for centuries, if not thousands of years," he said.

Refreshments will be served from 7pm, the walks start at 8pm from the National Park centre and the beacon will be lit at 9.30pm. To book a place on the walks, telephone 01287 660654.

Another site in the skies will be a flypast over Northallerton by four Hawk aircraft of No 100 Squadron at RAF Leeming at 4pm on Sunday.

Postal services over the weekend will be restricted due to the bank holidays.

On Monday or Tuesday there will be no deliveries and post offices and Parcelforce depots will be closed. There will be no collections on Sunday and Monday, but there will be a Sunday-style collection on Tuesday.

There will be an expansion of the leisure bus network to the Yorkshire Dales over the weekend, with the addition of through buses from York to Ripon, Fountains Abbey, Pateley Bridge and Grassington. For information call Traveline on 0870 608 2 608.


Updated: 11:09 Tuesday, May 28, 2002