THE Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh concluded their two day Diamond Jubilee tour of Wales with a visit to Glan Usk Park in Crickhowell.

The Royal couple first arrived on the Royal train in Cardiff on Thursday and attended a service of thanksgiving at Llandaff Cathedral with a congregation numbering over 600 people. The Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan praised the Queen's commitment to public life.

The royal party then travelled to Margam Park in Port Talbot where they met Wales' Grand Slam-winning team. Later in the day the Queen visited Cyfarthfa Castle and Cyfarthfa High School.

On day two of the Diamond Jubilee tour the Queen returned to Aberfan where she unveiled a plaque at Ynysowen Community Primary School, the school which replaced the building where a total of 144 people, including 116 children, died after waste from the coal mine slid down the mountain, engulfing the school and surrounding houses in 1966. The visit was a sign of her continued support for the victims of the Aberfan disaster.

As part of her second day in Wales ,the Queen paid tribute to the people of the Principality for their 'remarkable spirit' during a speech at the newly-refurbished Steel Works building in Ebbw Vale, which is now home to Gwent archives. She said: "My family has been coming here since the height of the Valleys' industrial might. After the closure of the steelworks a decade ago, we have admired the fortitude and resilience of Ebbw Vale as you have tackled the social and economic struggle that followed.

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country during my 60 years as your Queen.

"Prince Philip and I have shared many of the joys and sadness of the Welsh people in that time and have always been struck by your sense of pride and your undimmed optimism."

But at Glan Usk Park in Crickhowell, the Queen was mobbed by hundreds of cheering royal fans as she toured the exhibitors at the Diamonds in the Park" event.

As the heavens opened many felt the Queen would be forced to abandon a planned walkabout.

But while the organisers were going from Plan A to Plan B down to Plan Z as instructions changed by the minute, the Queen duly arrived with the Duke of Edinburgh under the gateway tower in matching royal Range Rovers,

More than 4,000 children from across Powys sang out and cheered when the Queen began her walking tour of the event.

While just about everybody who had attended Glan Usk Park came wearing Wellington boots, it appeared that the only person not wearing boots was the Queen herself.