Conkering
By: Robin Conkering in the Autumn Robin: Of course, then come the Autumn, you’d go conkering looking for conkers. Because there are so many chestnut trees on Midsummer Common and then there’d be the conker season and people would soak conkers in vinegar to try to harden them and half baked them but it never […]
Canoeing on the River Cam
By: Robin Pippa: And did you ever play in the river? Robin: Not the River Cam, I used to go fishing there. And my brother had a canoe. My dad found a canoe quite cheap. And they repaired it – it was canvas and they repaired it with pitch and canvas and the very first […]
The Dorothy
By: Robin Emma: Where did you used to go dancing? Robin: Oh, there was the famous Dorothy, which is now a bookshop. And it had three or four floors. And the first floor was the Oak Room where they had rock bands. Then you went through some doors to a ballroom where they had slow, […]
Cycling to Newmarket
By: Robin Robin: And I had a tiny bike, it was a BSA. And I went cycling with a mate once and I said, ‘Where should we go?’ And he said, ‘New Market.’ I said ‘That’s too far.’ ‘No it’s easy.’ Anyway, we got about a quarter of the way and I’d had enough. But […]
Fishing for tadpoles and minnows
By: Robin Yeah, we’d go to Cherry Hinton Hall where they hold Folk Festival. And there’s their streams and ponds there. And we go looking for tadpoles and little minnows and things like that. We’d fix our nets to the handle / the crossbar and the bike and cycle there. It was quite a little […]
Cowboys and dust carts
By: Robin Earliest memory playing out when I was a kid… Well, I used to be very keen on cowboys and horses. And I don’t know how old I was – perhaps six, seven? I used to sit on the doorstep for street where I lived, which was Sturton Street and it’s a tiny narrow […]
Playing at The Pavillion
By Shahida Rahman We moved to Gurney Way from Devonshire Road in 1976, when my twin sister and I were still very young. I remember we would go to the playing field and pavilion at Gilbert Road. I remember playing cricket as a family, picking apples from the tree in our garden, and playing hide and seek between […]
Bottisham
By: Claire Ellis As a child my friends & I had 2 great places to play; Benditch, where we were free to Climb trees, help each other find solutions to problems, enjoy our friendship. The Dirthills: where we played Cowboys & Indians all Saturday, This was a large grass are with a massive log & […]
The tree
By: Milly When I was eight or nine years old, I think I thought I was the next Bear Grylls, because I decided I wanted to climb to the top of a tree. I got really high up and suddenly the panic set in and I tried to climb down but realised I was stuck! […]
Jumping Hedges
By: Alex Elbro One big memory I have of playing as a child in London was “jumping hedges”. We had greens in front of rows of houses on the estate where we lived and these were separated from the pavement by privet hedges. We would take a run at the hedges from the pavement side, […]
