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A Worksop woman and her friend paid tributes to the Queen in London.

Beth Hodgkinson, aged 22, from Gateford, travelled the 165 miles to London to pay her respects to the Queen.

Beth went with her friend, Georgia Cotton, 23, who she met while studying for a degree in professional and commercial dance at Shockout Arts in Manchester.

The pair had booked their visit to London from September 12 to 14, to audition for a job with Disneyland Paris, but it ended up coinciding with thousands of people travelling to London to mourn Queen Elizabeth II after she died on September 8.

Beth Hodgkinson, from Worksop, and friend Georgia Cotton visited London to pay their respects to the Queen.

While their auditions were unsuccessful, it gave them the opportunity to pay tribute to Her Majesty for themselves and their family.

Georgia brought flowers for the pair to lay near Buckingham Palace.

Beth, who currently works in McDonald’s and as a part-time dance teacher at Donna Pressley Dance Academy said: “There were so many lovely notes and someone had done a gorgeous painting of the Queen. It was lovely."

On Tuesday, the pair headed to The Mall to watch as the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II arrived at Buckingham Palace, but were ‘gutted’ when they realised they were 20 minutes too late.

Hundreds paid tribute to the Queen by laying floral tributes.

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The following day they joined thousands of people on Whitehall for three hours where they witnessed the procession as the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery carried the coffin to Westminster Hall on a gun carriage.

Beth said: “We were watching it live, so we knew how far away she was, and just before they came through the Horse Guards Parade, it just went completely silent.

"We were all just chatting away to each other and then it was like you knew she was there, and everybody just went really quiet.

Beth Hodgkinson laid flowers to pay her respects to the Queen and the Royal Family.

"Then it was just a gentle clap as she came past and somebody started the three cheers.

"It was an amazing experience. I'm glad we did it, it just filled you with so much warmth to hear everybody's stories and why they were there.”

Beth’s family had always called Queen Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’, after Beth’s father, Malcolm Chicken, met Her Majesty in 2000 in Mansfield, when she visited Queen Elizabeth’s Academy, where he worked as a PE teacher.

She said: "My family was glad one of us got to go and pay respects.”

Young Worksop woman visits London to pay respects to the Queen