Queen Elizabeth II: Pictures of visits to the North East and Cumbria

Queen Elizabeth II visited the north-east of England and Cumbria many times during her 70-year reign, opening some of the region's best-known landmarks and visiting communities, businesses and charities.

She first visited the North East as monarch for something of a whistle-stop tour in 1954, two years after her coronation at the age of 25.

She said she never forgot her visit, recalling many years later how she and Prince Philip visited Whitley Bay, Tynemouth, Wallsend, Newcastle, Jarrow, South Shields and Sunderland "all in one day".

Her first visit to Carlisle came in 1958 and she returned to Cumbria as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002.

She officially opened the Tyne and Wear Metro in 1981, the Millennium Bridge between Newcastle and Gateshead in 2002, the Sage in Gateshead in 2008 and the Tees Barrage International White Water Centre at Stockton in 2012.

In June 1956, the Queen toured the Imperial Chemical Industries works - better known as ICI - at Wilton on Teesside to see an exhibition of goods made from the synthetic fibre Terylene.

She was captured pausing to look at a dress entirely made from the fabric.

During her Silver Jubilee tour in July 1977 the Queen visited Hartlepool town centre, where she was greeted by dignitaries and presented with flowers.

She was also taken aboard Hartlepool Lifeboat and Tees Dock.

She returned to Teesside in 1993, visiting Hartlepool Marina.

In 1999 Her Majesty encountered an old companion during a visit to the Roman site of Vindolanda near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland - a dog she had bred and given to her friend Lady Beaumont who lived in the area.

The Queen was always praised for her dedication to a life of hard work and long days, sometimes with seemingly little respite.

In May 2002 an official photograph showed her dealing with paperwork on the Royal train near Darlington, having travelled overnight to open the Millennium Bridge between Newcastle and Gateshead.

The visit was part of the second leg of her nationwide Golden Jubilee tour.

On the same tour the Queen rode on the new Metro line between Sunderland and Newcastle after officially opening it at the Park Lane interchange.

The following day she visited Easington in County Durham where she met three rescue workers involved in the aftermath of the one of the worst mining disasters in British history at Easington Colliery in 1951.

Later, in Seaham, one of the young schoolchildren greeting her as she arrived prompted a laugh by offering a teddy bear.

Six years later, the Queen took an early summer trip to Cumbria.

Ever interested, she was pictured concentrating as a cook from the Pie Mill demonstrated chocolate cake-making at the Cumbrian Rural Enterprise Agency.

She was clearly pleased to be back in the county in 2013, as she visited Bowness-on-Windermere as part of a series of engagements in the Lake District.

Anticipation of the Duchess of Cambridge's expected baby was rife and the Queen was questioned by a 10-year-old schoolgirl.

She replied she was hoping the royal baby would be born soon because she was about to go on holiday.