YOUNG and old donned their best red and white and proved the cynics wrong when they came out in force to celebrate the golden jubilee across north Wiltshire at the weekend.

But in Chippenham a thoughtless thief put a dampener on things by stealing a union flag from a house in Milford Way the day before its street party on Tuesday.

Resident Derek Freegard, 43, said: "We didn't expect anything to go missing overnight. It's not really in the spirit of things, is it?"

He added: "We didn't let it bother us too much, although it was irritating, and we had an excellent party in our road."

It was the same in streets across Chippenham, Calne, Corsham and the surrounding area, where neighbours came out of their houses, closed off their streets and enjoyed the jubilee spirit and a welcome couple of days off work.

Even the showery weather could not put people off, as they rushed into each other's houses to keep off the rain before carrying on with their festivities when it stopped.