CHILDREN played a major part in the planting of a special hedge in Chobham to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

St Lawrence Primary School pupils carefully embedded 100 tiny trees, known as whips, in the village cemetery on Monday afternoon.

The trees – hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and field maple – will form a semi-circular hedge to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Queen coming to the throne.

The Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, Michael More-Molyneux, was present to support the event in his capacity of Her Majesty’s representative in the county.

“The children really made the occasion and loved being involved,” said parish council chairman Les Coombs. “The school had done a marvellous job of telling them about the Queen and the reasons for commemorating her special anniversary.

“It was also a great community effort. There was a contribution to help buy the whips coming from the proceeds of the Tea on the Green gatherings in the recreation ground last summer and Chobham Society rallied local people to dig the holes for the trees on Saturday.”

It is planned to site some benches within the semi-circle, which is as the eastern end of the new section of the cemetery. “We want it to be a peaceful place for rest and contemplation,” added Cllr Coombs.

A team from the school newspaper, St Lawrence Catch Up, was busy during the proceedings, taking pictures and interviewing Mr More-Molyneux, author and parish councillor Emma Kennedy and the News & Mail’s photographer.

They are producing a special issue to record the hedge planting, which is one of Chobham’s contributions to the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative to commemorate the platinum jubilee.

For more pictures of the event, get the 3 February edition of the News & Mail, in shops now