Joan, at the time, worked as an office clerk at Colne Co-op, having been a pupil at Lord Street School followed by four years at Primet Secondary School (where classmate Trevor Riddiough and myself used to try and catch a glimpse of Joan playing netball to the accompaniment of our wolf-whistles!)

In 1960, Joan married Nelsoner Leslie Holmes after having met at their favourite venue, Nelson's Imperial Ballroom and they would have three children, Stephen, Alison and Andrew.

Later on, having moved to Knaresborough in Yorkshire, the happy couple founded a chain of highly successful fancy goods shops which are still running as a thriving family business today.

Joan's most affable dad, Frank, now in his nineties, told me recently as we chatted together in town. "Seeing our Joan crowned as Colne's first Carnival Queen made me so very proud all those years ago".

And quite rightly so, for Joan looked stunning in the sun on Saturday, August 9th, 1958, as celebrity blonde bombshell, Vanda, crowned her in front of thousands of happy revellers.

The park was truly decked out in a blaze of colour from the sideshows and hundreds of morris dancing troupes, as Buddy Holly's "Rave On" echoed out from the Tannoy into the sunlight.

I was there with my pals, Mel Hartley, Dave Horsfall, Mick Crabtree, Ed Kelly, Allan Lister, Malcs Graham and Jimmy Smith and what a great day it was. The admission fee into the park was one shilling (5p), although got all eight of us in for free after convincing the field marshal we were on litter duty!

After watching Joan's crowning at 3-30 p.m. amidst our wild cheering, we all went for hot dogs and then had a bopping session by the bandstand to the sound of Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" and Jerry Lee Lewis's "Breathless". Then our intrepid octet went over to the grounds of "Ivanhoe" to watch the grand archery display by the Walverden bowmen. We climbed high into the towering oak tree just by the entrance, only to be called down by a somewhat agitated Adolf Likierman!

However, this did not dampen a wonderful day and we stayed until the sun went down.

The crowd on the big day was estimated at 7,500 and £150 was raised for charity.