Flora Smith was the young daughter of John and Ellen Smith, part of a group of travelling gypsies who encamped on slum clearance ground near to Coronation Street for two weeks in October 1970, sharing their pleasant modern caravan with her parents and her five-year old brother. A dubious Ellen allowed Lucille to visit the encampment where she realised that Flora had few children's' books available to her. She took Ellen and Flora to visit Valerie Barlow who donated several of Peter and Susan's old volumes.