Crowning of the Carnival Queen Caerleon 1960s
photo: Sonia Phillips

The Holidays at Home Week commenced on August Bank Holiday Monday with the carnival. Pictured above we see the crowning of the Carnival Queen. The year was 1959 and the proud Carnival Queen Sonia Phillips (now Sonia Fisher).

Events later in the week included: a comic football match with moveable goalposts on wires; a dance in New Hall (now demolished, it was opposite Vine Cottages); fancy dress where the committee men dressed as women and the women dressed as men in tuxedos; children's sports; barrel rolling and a talent show.
Left, information about the Carnival Queen Contest from Caerleon's Holidays at Home 1959 Programme of Entertainments. To view the whole programme follow this link.

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The photo above brought back memories for Tony Ward. He looked through his photo album and dug out this shot (below). It was taken, he thinks, in the early 1960s. The group pictured were part of the carnival procession - the Floral Queen and her Court. Tony recalls, "They were formed and looked after on the day by Mrs Nellie Roberts, seen on the right holding her daughter's hand. The two boys are myself (holding the card) and Keith Turner."
The more Tony stared at our 'Archive picture' (top of page) the more he became convinced that the page boy was in fact himself. There certainly is a striking resemblance, the problem is that he has no memory of wearing these white clothes. So maybe it's him (a few years before the picture below was taken), maybe not - can you help?

Carnival procession Caerleon in theearly 1960s. The floral queen and her court.