YORK'S own cavalry regiment reaffirmed its links with the city this weekend with a day of pageantry and parades to mark the unit's tenth anniversary.

The Royal Dragoon Guards exercised the Freedom of the City on Saturday, marching through the streets with bayonets fixed while displaying the regiment's military honours, once the Lord Mayor, Councillor Irene Warby, had inspected the troops outside York Minster.

The parade was followed by a service at All Saints' Church where a new stained glass window was dedicated to all those who have served with the guards, or other units which amalgamated to form the newer regiment ten years ago.

The window depicts the crests of the founding regiments with their new crest at the centre.

The programme concluded in the afternoon when a new Great North-Eastern Railway locomotive was named after the regiment, at York Station.

The high-speed unit will carry the plaque, 43039 Royal Dragoon Guards.

The guards are currently based at York Barracks at Munster in Germany. Formerly a cavalry regiment, it has exchanged horses for the Challenger II tank - said to be one of the most-advanced pieces of military hardware in the world.