This month (11-14 July) QEST Scholars have been at Buckingham Palace as part of the Coronation Festival marking the 60th anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation.

The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) was invited to update the Summer House in the garden of the palace in a legacy project that showcases the diversity of crafts that QEST supports.

One of those who contributed to the QEST project is lettercutter Daniel Meek, who is pictured here working on the commemorative plaque he made in Yorkstone for the Festival.

The Festival was hosted by the Royal Warrant Holders Association, which established QEST (named after the Queen Mother, rather than the reigning monarch, as she celebrated her 90th birthday) in 1990 to provide bursaries to craftspeople to enable them to continue their studies and increase their skills.

The Festival brought together more than 200 holders of Royal Warrants of Appointment in a celebration of innovation, excellence and industry through trade and craft.

The event came just after QEST had topped the £2million mark of educational funding with the allocation £162,000-worth of bursaries to another 23 craftspeople. Unusually, this time there were no stone workers among the recipients of the awards, but there have been many among the 296 craftspeople who have become QEST Scholars in the 23 years since the Trust was formed.