HUNDREDS of diners feasted on a banquet of fillet of beef and scotch quail eggs last night as the nave of York Minster was turfed over to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

As The Press reported earlier this week, the cathedral’s 14th-century nave has been covered in 1,500 square metres of real grass to welcome more than 900 guests for a special meal to celebrate the Jubilee and the York Minster Rose, and to raise money for the York Minster Fund.

Guests at the York Minster Rose Dinner walked and dined on tables set out on the “living carpet” which was grown on recycled textiles.

The outdoors theme was chosen to complement the new York Minster Rose, which was launched at Chelsea Flower Show last year.

The dinner was only the second such event to take place in the cathedral, following a dinner in 2008 to celebrate the restoration of the Great East Window.

Among the guests attending the meal were the acting Dean Canon Glyn Webster, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, Lord Halifax and Lord Crathorne.

The £150-a-head tickets for the meal sold out months ago.