A COMMUNITY tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II is to be unveiled in a West Somerset village next week.

People living in Bicknoller, at the foot of the Quantock Hills, have rallied round to raise the cost of a new Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Gate for the village churchyard.

The gate has been designed and made by award-winning West Country Blacksmiths, in Allerford, which is owned by brothers Kyle and Kieren Roberts.

The idea was put forward by Alastair Greswell and a committee of residents in Bicknoller was set up which raised funds by asking 228 villagers to contribute £20 each.

The project was backed by Bicknoller parish councillors, although they were unable to contribute financially.

The memorial gate will replace an old rickety wooden gate at the entrance to the garden of remembrance to the side of the churchyard of the 12th century Grade I listed St George’s Church, which has a thousand-year-old yew tree in its grounds.

It is next to and visible from Church Lane and just 65 feet away from the churchyard's Victoria Gate, which is the main entranceway and commemorates the reign of Queen Victoria.

An official opening of the Queen Elizabeth memorial will be held on Tuesday, September 19.

Parish councillors have also framed a letter sent to Buckingham Palace when the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was celebrated last year and the response which was received and have had them both hung in Bicknoller Village Hall along with a copy of a jubilee scroll.

Ten years ago a ‘Jubilee treble bell’ was installed in St George’s after villagers raised funds for an appeal celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s reign in 2012.

They were supported with contributions from the bell fund of the Bath and Wells Diocesan Association of Change Ringers, Bicknoller Church Parochial Church Council, the Rotary Club of The Quantocks, and Giraffe Media Ltd.

The ‘Jubilee bell’, bought through through the Keltek Trust, became the sixth for St George’s and came from All Saints’ Church, in High Wycombe.