The Armed Forces Golden Jubilee gift to the Queen has been officially presented at Sandringham.

The gates and railings have been installed across a driveway on the Queen’s Norfolk estate, clearly visible from the public road.

The gates were presented to the Queen by the Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, and the heads of the three Armed Forces – including First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alan West – at a brief ceremony in the unusual surroundings of a sodden and rather muddy forest.

A ribbon in the colours of the Services, strung across the gates, was snipped by the Queen to officially open the installation, after which she and the Duke of Edinburgh walked through to meet some of the military and civilian personnel involved in the creation of the gates, railings and castings.

Two junior Servicemen pushed the gates open for the royal couple, one of whom was MEM Kevin Dewar, from Allied Trades in HMS Sultan.

The decorative castings were produced at HMS Sultan in Gosport last summer in what was the last working foundry in the Armed Forces.

The main tri-Service and EIIR cypher patterns were designed by Ernie Perry, who works for DML in Devonport, and the rest produced or procured by staff at Sultan, working under veteran foundryman Robbie Roberts, who has now retired.

The foundry itself has also closed, although all the equipment remains in situ, and the facility retains the patterns for around 250 ships’ crests.

The gates and railings themselves were produced by the Army at Colchester, while the RAF undertook much of the administrative and support work, including supply of some of the materials.

All the castings – a total of 24 adorn the gates and railings – are made of gunmetal, chosen as it is a hard-wearing and weatherproof material.

The opening of the gates was the first official engagement carried out by the Queen since an operation on her knee more than two weeks ago.