Whatever the inspiration may have been behind Hilda Winstone's Easter bonnet, it proved to be a winning formula, writes Natasha Scales.

Both she and her husband Walter ended up winners to make it a family double in the competition at Morris Motors Athletic and Social Club, in Crescent Road, Cowley, Oxford, in April 1969.

The Oxford Mail reported: "It might have been the memory of those Easter bonnets Mrs Winstone used to buy years ago in Nottingham market that did it.

"Or it might just have been the real flowers she wove into her hat for the parade.

"Whatever it was, she topped the parade by winning first prize for the women's entries, and her husband won first and novelty prizes with a natty straw-and-ribbon creation she had helped to make."

Mrs Winstone said afterwards: "I always had a new hat for Easter when I was younger. They were a shilling each at the market in those days."

About 150 members of the retired employees' section of the club watched the parade which, according to our report, included "10 brave and smart-hatted men".

The tradition of special Easter hats goes back many centuries the Roman Emperor Constantine is said to have declared that people should wear their best clothing to observe Easter Sunday.

At the turn of the 20th century, it became popular for families to show off their bonnets on their way to and from church on Easter Sunday morning, but the notion of an Easter parade solely to display the artistry of bonnets did not become widespread until after Irving Berlin's song Easter Parade was released.

The chicks and rabbits adorning Mrs Winstone's bonnet have long been associated with Easter and are riddled with Pagan symbolism of fertility and new life.