This week for Looking Back, we will be reminiscing about an annual Lyme Regis festival.

For more than forty years, Lifeboat Week has drawn many thousands of visitors to the town at the height of summer, boosting the local economy and helping to raise money for the RNLI charity.

Most years, the total raised for the RNLI during the week is around £25,000 to £30,000.

Thank you to Richard Horobin for providing the relevant information and pictures for this piece, and to the RNLI.

Records show that the first Lifeboat Week was held in 1972, and kicked off with an RNLI film show, with events such as a canoe demonstration by pupils of Woodroffe School, a visit by a helicopter from HMS Osprey at Portland, a water skiing demonstration by members of the powerboat club, and a souvenir stall at the lifeboat station.

To begin with, Lyme Regis originally held a Lifeboat Day, which started in 1965, but during the next few years, realised the potential for greater things.

One of the founder members of Lifeboat Week was Richard Fox MBE, a crew member for 15 years, Lyme's town crier for 16 years, and world champion town crier three times over.

Mr Fox was labelled as the leading light in bringing aerial entertainment to the town, such as the Red Arrows, helicopter display teams and parachutists.

Despite one member worrying in 1976 that the event would fade out, Mr Fox informed the committee he would be willing to organise the 1977 event.

In 1978, not only did the Red Arrows appear, but there was a first display by the United States Air Force's F111 swing-wing fighters, the Royal Navy's Sea Fury from Yeovilton, and the search and rescue helicopter from Portland.

As he had been the landlord of two Lyme Regis pubs, Mr Fox was well placed to gauge the mood for fun in the town.

And so, apart from the displays by the Red Arrows and other aircrafts, other odd events were introduced to the programme, including mangle dangling, dwile flonking, swash buckling, high cock-o-lorem and conger cuddling.

The latter his the headlines in 2006, when the event was cancelled.

Conger Cuddling involved a dead five foot long conger eel suspended on a rope, and the aim was for lifeboat crew members to knock each other over by swinging it.

While some of these unusual activities are no longer part of the programme, old traditions died hard, such as the yard of ale competition and the tug 'o war contest, which involves the lifeboat crew and an emergency services team trying to pull each other into the water across the harbour mouth.

One attraction Richard Fox introduced to Lifeboat Week was a hot air balloon display.

He constructed seven balloons from tissue paper, and one balloon was launched from Marine Parade on each day of the week.

During the 2012 Lifeboat Week, the crew set a new record, answering eight shouts during the week, including a 15 hour session following a fatal landslip at Burton Bradstock, and the rescue of two teenage boys found clinging to their deflated rubber dinghy a mile off Axmouth.

Town crier Alan Vian, on duty throughout the week, kept crowds aware with his public address system.

Despite activities coming and going, and different visitors participating each year, one thing remains the same.

The week is all about raising funds for the charity that saves lives at sea, the RNLI.

This year, the Lifeboat Week will take place from Saturday, July 28 until Friday, August 3, with various different activities planned throughout the week.

To find out more, visit facebook.com/LymeRegisLifeboatWeek