Crowds flocked to the seafront at Queenborough and stretched along 'the hard' causeway to watch Sheppey's only Platinum Jubilee Beacon being lit on Thursday night.

Veteran runner Mick Cattell, 75, was given the onerous task of sprinting with a burning torch towards the beacon on Crundall's Wharf.

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He handed the torch to Sheppey firm Prime One Maintenance which took the beacon and lifted it on a cherry-picked to set fire to the timber at precisely 9.45pm to coincide with the igniting of 3,500 other beacons across the UK and the Commonwealth to mark The Queen's 70 years on the throne.

Island-born Mick, who lives in the appropriately named Coronation Crescent at Queenborough, said: "I felt very honoured."

The retired postman has also been selected to be one of the runners to carry the Queen's baton to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in July. He is expected to take part in the south east section around Tonbridge on July 7.

During the past 35 years, the father of three and grandad of two has chalked up 112 marathons and raised £240,000 for good causes.

The beacon lighting was organised by Queenborough Town Council which had strung up temporary red, white and blue lights along the seafront in front of the park specially for the occasion.

The event also featured a contingent from the Sheppey Sea Cadets and a raiding party from the Sheppey Pirates who fired off a round of muskets after the lantern was lit.

Flaming beacons at Iwade, Lower Halstow and the Isle of Grain could be seen from Queenborough where the crowd was invited to sing A Life Lived With Grace, the official song for the beacons.

A fire crew later extinguished glowing embers from Sheppey's light post with a water jet for safety, sending a dark plume of smoke and steam hissing into the sunset.