A museum plans to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee by giving visitors free admission.

Charges at the dli - formerly the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery - will be scrapped next Monday, saving £6.25 on a family ticket.

A jubilee picnic will be held in the museum grounds by the Durham Light Infantry Association and Durham County Council.

The day will also mark the launch of a jubilee walk through the grounds.

"Picnics in the grounds are always hugely popular, and now there is an extra special reason for bringing the whole family along to enjoy the day," said Councillor Alan Cox, council cabinet member for cultural issues.

"We wanted to take part in the spirit of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations and giving free entry to one of the country's top regimental museums is a way of doing that,'' he said.

Visitors will be able to get up close to rarely-seen First World War objects, including British and German rifles, hand grenades, uniforms and body armour.

"Children and their families will be able to handle objects that are normally only seen by school groups," said the museum's curator, Steve Shannon.

Visitors will also be able to see three exhibitions in the gallery - cartoons and caricatures of the rich and famous by Geoff Laws, life-size sculptures by Phillip Cox, and the work of 18th and 19th Century cartoonists.

Families can take their own food - there is a prize for the best picnic - or buy refreshments from the dli cafe, a barbecue or beer tent.

Free entertainment includes the Stanley Accrington Ceilidh Band, country and western music from Indian Sound, Acoustic Rogues guitar band, organ grinder Cyril Hay and his puppets, plus face-painting and a bouncy castle for children.

Free parking will be available at County Hall nearby.