Carnival day was something to look forward to as a kid. Beach races in the morning, swimming and boat races and the carnival. As teenagers we used to race in and out of the pubs and hotels, in one door and out another, we must have been a nightmare!

I remember the carnivals - my twin sisters entered one year to be the Carnival Queen for St Mawes. As they are identical twins, I don't know HOW the committee chose between them, but they did - one as the Queen and the other as one of the attendants. Cost our mother a bomb for the long formal white gown the Queen had to wear for her formal engagements. Mother spent the whole of the summer Saturdays driving my sisters to attend the various Carnivals in Cornwall, lots of them in the clay pits area.