3rd February 1956 
She is the Candy Queen

A free trip to Paris, a cheque for £100 and clothes worth £50 are prizes which would make most girls fluttery and excited. And that was how 21 competitors felt as they paraded before 400 people in the Assembly Rooms, Pontefract, on Friday, when the Mid-Yorkshire Confectionery and Allied Trades Sports Association held its annual Candy Ball to choose its Candy Queen. The winner takes part in the national contest in London, in April, when the first prize is the trip, the cheque and the clothes.

But the girls, who were mostly from Pontefract, Castleford, Featherstone, Knottingley and Wakefield, representing nearly every sweet manufacturing works in the area, gave no outward signs of being nervous, The judges were Aubrey Powell, the ex-Leeds United and Welsh international footballer, and two Doncaster models Patricia Hurst and Beryl Sanderson. While they carefully sought for poise, manner and all the attributes that make a beauty queen, the audience was satisfied to roar approval.

Eventually dark-haired Kathleen Miskell, aged 17, of Normanton, was selected as the winner. Last years Queen, Miss Rita Twibey, placed the black swing, with ‘Mid-Yorks, Candy Queen’ brightly stitched in white, on Kathleen’s pink tulle evening dress. She was congratulated by the Chairman of the Association, Mr. A.D. Smith, of Pontefract, and by the Mayor and Mayoress of Pontefract, Councillor and Mrs R. Egan, and the Mayor presented the first prize of £10 to her. The second place went to Miss Catherine Mortimer aged 24, and the third to Mrs Eileen Johnson aged 26, both of Pontefract, who received £5 and £2.10s respectively. Councillor Egan congratulated the other contestants and wished good luck to Kathleen in the finals.