The royal champagne cellar got a top-up this week, when a Semington toastmaster delivered a giant bottle of bubbly to Buckingham Palace.

Eric Gill, a founder member of the Executive Guild of Toastmasters and Town Criers, presented the 20-bottle nebuchadnezzar as a present to the Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year. He was accompanied by seven other Guild members and their wives.

Mr Gill, of The Orchard, said: “It was fantastic. The Queen wasn’t there, but Sir Edward Griffiths, who is Master of the Household, came to meet us.

“We had to go all through security and then he gave us a tour of the palace, which was really lovely.

“He showed us the champagne in the cellars down there. It was fantastic. He showed us where the bottle went. The Yeoman of the Cellars brought it around on a trolley and put it in next to another one.

“It was a fantastic day. The most amazing part was we spent an hour doing autographs and photos with tourists by the gates.

“They kept coming up and grabbing us for photos.

“It was right at the Changing of the Guard and they all wanted to know what it was all about.”