VINCE and Kath Boulter were one of many couples who met and fell in love at Carfax Assembly Rooms in Oxford.

Vince asked Kath to dance and that was the start of a romance that lasted more than 50 years.

He was prompted to write in after seeing the picture of Dennis Fogden and his friends relaxing at the Cornmarket Street venue in the 1960s (Memory Lane, November 22, last year).

He recalls: “I was camping at Sandford with my friend, Bert Scobie, when a Scoutmaster asked Bert if he would like to buy tickets for a dance at Carfax Assembly Rooms to help raise funds for his Scout group.

“We were only too pleased to support his Scouts and bought tickets.

“On the evening of the dance, we went on our bikes as there were no regular buses at the time.

“I was more than a little bashful at the time but, looking round the hall, I said to Bert: ‘See that girl over there – before the evening is over, I am going to ask her for a dance.’ “Bert said: ‘Now is the time to ask her, before someone else asks her.’ “I was a little hesitant, in case she refused, but she didn’t refuse me and on to the dance floor we went.

“After the dance, I invited her for a drink – the most popular drink at the time was port and lemon – and we sat down and talked.

“She told me that she lived at Littlemore and that all her friends who worked at Littlemore Laundry called her Katy Todd. She said they were having a dance in Littlemore the following Saturday evening and I told her that I would like to go.

“When the evening at Carfax Assembly Rooms was over and everyone was leaving, we saw Katy and her friends going home on their bikes, just as Bert and I were.

“However, the girls seemed to be going home another way to the way Bert and I were going and I said to Bert: ‘They don’t live in Littlemore.’ “I was very disappointed. However, when Saturday came, Bert and I went to the dance at Littlemore Village Hall and there, to our surprise, were the girls.

“Katy (who preferred to be called Kath) and I later became engaged and we were married at SS Mary and John Church, in Cowley Road, on February 17, 1940.”

Kath died in 1994, but Vince is still going strong at his home in Wood Farm, Headington, at the age of 94.

  • Any more stories of Carfax Assembly Rooms to share with readers? Write and let me know.