Katherine kindly published a short piece about the site in the autumn edition of expression magazine and included two photographs. The colour photograph was taken on the cliffs above Sidmouth during the Summer of 1958. A lot of our walks were in the Sidmouth area.

The Rag photograph was taken on February 22nd 1958 and the umbrellas show that it was a bleak, cold, wet day. After forty five years, I still admire the participants for carrying on in such wintry conditions.I couldn't remember what the theme of this float was and asked if anyone knew. I received a reply from Diane Ascroft and the whole story was revealed.

  Diane was one of the team who worked on this Lopes Hall float and says that the theme was taken from the film "Les Girls" which just happened to be showing at the old ABC Savoy cinema which was situated next to Boots in High Street. Diane sent me another photo of the float and I found yet another in the archive. She knew the names of most of the participants and, if any of them would like to see these photos, I will e-mail copies to them. Diane also related two little stories and I include them below as they illustrate so well that you do not need many words to tell a good story:

"I remember getting Asian flu in January 1958 - I was too ill to make the journey to Exeter for the start of the winter term, but tottered back way before I should have, only to find that most of Lopes was down with it. They had isolated the victims on the upper floors - so I was not able to go back to my own room - but those of us who had had it were required to look after and take meals to the sufferers. No lifts in Lopes! I can remember being barely able to get up the stairs, let alone with a loaded tray!"

Recalling one of her friends, Christine, she says, "Christine was always good fun: my main memory of her was going on a cycle ride with her somewhere in the direction of Ide. She had a racing style bike with drop handle bars, mine was a sit-up-and-beg type. We got to the top of Crossmead Hill on our return and set off down it together. Christine was quite a big girl on a light bike; I was a rather light girl on a heavy bike - so Christine arrived at the bottom of the hill about half an hour before me!"

Diane also sent this photo. I think there is something quite remarkable about this tiny snapshot. It is just so vibrant with life and atmosphere. It was taken in the grounds of Lopes during the winter 1957/ 58 and was a snowball fight Lopes v. Kilmorie. Surely there must be someone who remembers this small incident all those years ago and can say they definitely took part! Let me know and many thanks to Diane for sharing her memories with us.