There were celebrations across the UK to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday yesterday.

Gun salutes, bells, balloons and beacons formed part of the celebrations as the UK’s longest-reigning monarch celebrated her special day

Gun salutes and bells rang out as celebrations for the Queen’s 90th birthday got into full swing across the nation yesterday.

Military units fired 103 rounds in two traditional salutes as thousands of people gathered in central London to witness the spectacle.

First, the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, wearing full dress uniform, rode their horses and gun carriages past Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park to stage a 41-gun Royal Salute at midday.

The Band of the Royal Artillery played as the 71 groomed horses pulled the six First World War-era 13-pounder field guns into position, before firing blank artillery rounds at precise 10-second intervals.

An hour later, the Honourable Artillery Company drove through the city to the Tower of London, firing a 62-gun salute across the Thames. There was also a 21-gun salute at Edinburgh Castle.

The bells of Westminster Abbey, where the Queen was married and crowned, also sounded at 1pm.

Later, the Houses of Parliament white and blue for the special royal anniversary, which continued through the night.

In the evening of her milestone anniversary, the Queen lit a beacon – the first in a chain of more than 1,000 across the world.

Local authorities around the UK also hosted lighting events to create a network of flames throughout the country in celebration.

Members of the Army Cadet Force carried beacons to the top of the four highest peaks in the United Kingdom – Ben Nevis in Scotland, Mount Snowdon in Wales, Scafell Pike in England, and Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland.

Heir to the throne and the Queen’s eldest Prince Charles wrote a message to beacon lighters ahead of the celebrations:

“It is a wonderful gesture which I know has deeply touched Her Majesty,” he wrote. “Beacons are to be lit on mountaintops, on beaches, in farmyards and on church towers, uniting us all in our heartfelt appreciation of the Queen’s lifetime of service to the United Kingdom and other Realms, and to the Commonwealth.”

There is a long and unbroken tradition of celebrating royal jubilees, weddings, coronations and birthdays in this way.

In Edinburgh, a firework display was staged over the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Meanwhile, a chocolate sculpture of Buckingham Palace and a birthday message written on the hair of a corgi were among the more unusual ways people marked the occasion.

Chocolatiers at Cadbury World in Birmingham took four days to create the 60kg edible model of the palace, complete with gates and chocolate soldiers standing guard.

Gogglebox stars Sandra and Sandy had staked a spot in the crowd to get a good view of the Queen.

Sandra Martin, who was wearing a pair of Union flag glasses, said: “We’ve taken time out of filming to come here and stayed overnight in Windsor.

“We’re here to celebrate the Queen’s birthday and I’m the only one on the programme who is allowed to speak about the Queen – for the last 20 years I’ve been a loyal, devoted follower.”

Philip stopped to talk to the pair and Ms Martin said later: “He asked me what I do and where I live... I told him ‘I sit on my sofa and watch TV and you watch me watching TV’ and that made him laugh.”

Town crier Tony Appleton, 80, from Chelmsford, had been at the Lindo Wing when Prince George and Princess Charlotte were born.

“I said to Her Majesty ‘I introduced your two great-grandchildren to the world’. “She laughed and said ‘Oh, did you?’ “It’s made my life!” David Cameron led the tributes to the monarch – born on April 21 1926 – who has become the country’s first nonagenarian sovereign.

The Prime Minister tweeted yesterday: “The whole country will want to wish the Queen a happy birthday today – she has been a rock of strength for our nation.”

Rosamund Fulawka, from Ascot, who turned 90 on April 10, said: “The Queen said to me ‘You were all born in a lovely vintage year’. That was a lovely thing to say.”