ONE lucky young lady got a bird’s eye view, while others had to strain their necks to enjoy the spectacle.

The picture was taken in Broad Street, Oxford, on May Morning in 1968.

Hundreds of people, who had enjoyed the festivities at Magdalen Bridge earlier, gathered outside the Clarendon Building and the Sheldonian Theatre to see morris dancers perform.

As the photograph shows, there wasn’t much room to move!

The celebrations were slightly muted that year, because the city’s boat firms refused to hire out punts.

The decision was made after several boats were returned damaged the previous year.

Mrs C Howard, whose husband had 65 boats at Magdalen Bridge, told the Oxford Mail: “We had to pay out £200 for repairs to damaged punts. Four boats had split sides and the whole sides had to be replaced.”

Other punts had been ‘bombed’ with burning logs and sods of earth dropped from Magdalen Bridge.

However, students determined to take to the water weren’t going to be beaten.

The Oxford Mail reported: “Because of the ban on punts, many brought their own strange-looking craft to launch on the river, where many shrieking and squealing duckings took place as young men and women were thrown into the chilly water.”

Another problem was that few people heard the choir singing from the top of Magdalen tower at 6am.

The amplification system attached to the college wall developed a fault at the crucial moment.

Some of the 5,000-strong crowd had started to gather at the bridge from 1am, to make sure of their place.

The report added: “The clothes worn by the students were more bizarre and colourful than ever.

“Teenage girls wandered in and out of the crowd clutching sprigs of May flowers, and others had flowers in their hair.

“Scores of pretty girls were decked out in everything from kaftans and togas to mini-skirts and night dresses.

“On a balcony at Magdalen College, a group of undergraduates in full morning dress stood solemnly doffing their hats to the masses below.

“At one point, a mock funeral cortege passed over the bridge, which drew howls from the crowd as they saw the ‘body’, with a suitable chalky face, lying reverently in the coffin carried by black-dressed pallbearers.”

Do you recognise yourself or anyone in the picture?