HOSTING the visit of the Queen to York Minster to hand out Maundy money will be one of the last major official duties of the Dean of York, the Very Rev Keith Jones, before he retires at the end of this month.

Her Majesty will be coming to the Minster as the guest of the Archbishop, Dr John Sentamu.

“The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop, and she will be visiting him at his cathedral,” the Dean said. “But I am the person who will act as host to the Queen in the Archbishop’s cathedral.”

It will be a scene of genuine pageantry. The Minster will essentially become a Chapel Royal for the duration of the Queen’s visit. “So it will be the Queen’s service.”

Her Majesty, who will arrive at the Minster just before 11am, will bring with her the choir of her own Chapel Royal – who will sing during the service with the Minster choir – as well as Yeomen of the Guard and members of the Royal Almonry, a small team within the royal household responsible for distributing alms to the poor.

The service will be held in the nave of the cathedral. “In form it will be a very simple service,” the Dean said. “There will be a reading from the Bible, and music performed by the Choir of the Chapel Royal singing with the Choir of York Minster.

“A great deal of the service will be taken up by the Queen walking the length of the nave and up the side aisle – she does this twice – placing the Maundy purses in the hands of the people receiving the Maundy money.”

There will be 172 Maundy recipients altogether – 86 women and 86 men, one man and one woman for each of the Queen’s 86 years. “It will be the biggest Maundy distribution ever, to mark the Jubilee,” the Dean said. “A really stunning thing.”

No complete list of recipients was issued in advance, but they will include 87-year-old Escrick church warden Bill Reader; 90-year-old York City legend Alf Patrick; 87-year-old lay preacher Tony Hunt; 86-year-old Frank Dean who, for a quarter of a century, maintained the church clock in Church Fenton; 81-year-old veteran choir singer Edith Bond; and 91-year-old grandmother of eight and church volunteer Hilda Coughlin.

Each recipient will receive two purses, one red and one white. The red purse will contain a £5 coin commemorating The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and a 50p coin. The white purse will contain uniquely minted Maundy Money. This takes the form of silver one, two, three and four penny pieces, totalling 86 pennies for the Queen’s age.

After the service, the royal party will sign the Minster visitors’ book and an official photograph will be taken of the Queen and the Royal Maundy party outside the Great West Door.

There will be a reception at the Deanery followed by a civic lunch at Mansion House, before the Queen heads to the Yorkshire Museum in the afternoon to visit the ‘2012: Making of the City’ exhibition.