A MILK float, a horse-drawn carriage and even a purple pizza delivery van are among the modes of transport used to carry a message from the Queen around Yorkshire this week.

Contained in a capsule the size of a Thermos flask, the note from Buckingham Palace is in recognition of the 125th anniversary of the Mothers' Union.

The objective is to ensure it is read in every diocese in the country by November - and its Journey of Hope through Ripon and Leeds starts today.

The pod travels through Leeds and Wetherby on an open-topped bus, a sports car and a milkfloat, before being handed to North Yorkshire, members of the Mothers Union, who will head through Whixley, Marton-cum-Graf-ton, Great and Little Ouseburn and Boroughbridge by Land Rover tomorrow.

The leg from Boroughbridge to Ripon will be done in a little more style, with the capsule carried to the city's cathedral for a short service by limousine, before it is transferred to a vintage Austin Seven for the trip north to Bedale.

Another short ceremony at the market town's St Gregory's Church ends with the capsule handed to the driver of a purple pizza delivery van, who takes over for the ride through Wensleydale, before turning south for Killinghall, on the edge of Harrogate.

From there, a car and a tractor share the trip to Knaresborough Railway Station, where the pod joins the train to Starbeck, where St Andrew's Church hosts another short evening service.

On Thursday, the final leg of the journey sees the Queen's message loaded back on the train to Headingley and then collected by horse and carriage for a journey to Leeds Bradford Airport, where it will be met by the Bishop of Bradford, the Right Reverend David Smith - but only after completing the last few hundred yards by luggage trolley