Elizabeth-Anne Peart  Remembers…….Elsie Siddele’s School of Dancing

I remember when I was 3 years old going to the Elsie Siddele School of Dancing (Mrs Biggs)  Mrs Foreman played the piano for us and Mrs Latham made all our costumes. This was in 1945 and material was very hard to get,so most of them were made of parachute silk or plastic, but they were beautiful. About twice a year we put on shows at the Palace Theatre. I remember the older dancers, including Mary Clark who later became a Television Topper) and Elsie's son, Howard, who was a superb tap dancer.”

We loved being on stage, but one thing that I remember well was the spiral staircase. Us little ones had a dressing room at the top of the theatre and running up and down the staircase was very hard on our little legs.”