AS carnival season approaches, members of the Lime Kiln Carnival Club are excited about their upcoming show boat theme for this year’s festivities, which has been in the planning stages for months.

Founded in 1946, immediately after the war, the club has used the same headquarters, the Lime Kiln Inn, itself a landmark on the carnival route in Bridgwater, for the last 70 years.

Therefore, every bit of history can be traced, with the club taking part in every carnival series and carnival concert since it began.

This year, as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations, club members gathered photographs of each carnival cart created since 1946.

A photo of the very first cart, however, was not found, and club chairman David Cleavely believes it may be because after the war, there were restrictions on paper and print and people didn’t carry cameras so much.

He said: “As a club, we had a very successful period during the 40s, 50s and 60s and we really were the club of the era.

“We haven’t placed at Bridgwater Carnival for the last 30 years though.

“We used to build the cart in the car park of thee Lime Kiln Inn and now we use a shed.

“We’re well known for our members either joining for one year and leaving, or joining for life.”

Currently, the group has 15 full members, 21 associate members, 18 life members and 83 supporters.

The youngest on stage at the carnival concert this year will be Lotty Sealey, 11, with Terry Hurford, 75, being the oldest.

“We have one family of three generations and two families of two generations involved at the moment,” added David, who joined in 1977.

“Lime Kiln is very family-based and my son Ben is the secretary. This year we will have 37 people people in costume and 43 on stage.

“We are doing a theme called show boat and funnily enough we did the same theme 60 years ago.

"We chose the theme last December and it’s all about coming on board and enjoying the show.”