Di.Poppitt
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
The park was my playground as a child. there was a gang of us children of a range of ages and we played together for all of my childhood.
One of the games we played was tracking, and if we could get hold of a stick of chalk we had endless hours of fun. One of us would set of at a pace and head off to the park marking arrows on walls and pavements, never in an obvious place and always at long intervals. When you set off from Witton Road there were five roads leading to the park, and any one of them could have been the tracking route, so we split up until we found the first arrow. The game was to find the leader. Sometimes it took us hours, we always aimed to end up near the Hall, so we had to get past the Parkies who were not too keen to let us past the lower part of the park.
The grass was always kept cut with 'keep off' notices everywhere, so of course we had to walk on it. The steps leading from the terraces were another temptation to us, the game was not to walk on the steps but balance on the concrete edgings.
Another game was hide and seek. When we got tired of playing around our own houses, or had been moved on by people who were fed up with us running up and down their entries we used the park. Near the bowling green there were huge Laurel hedges that were always clipped into shape with hollows in the middle; you could hide in there for ages without being found.
For a few years a marquee was put up and concerts were held in them. This was a real treat for us and we sat spell bound watching all the acts. There was alwasy a talent spotting contest, and my ambitions to go to Holywood were ended when my rendition of April Showers got me nowhere, it just embarrasssed my pals.
We rarelly had any money, but if by chance somebody had a couple of pennies we would all share a bottle of pop from the cafe.
We were not allowed into the Hall without an adult, so it held mysteries for us. We knew of the battle during the Civil War, and that you could still see the hole from the cannon ball. There were the stories of Dicks Garret too, but it was not until most of us were at work that we saw it all for ourselves.
In my teenage years I played tennis there, and after chuch on Sundays in the summer we gals showed our sophistication by going for a walk in the park. As a young mom I took my little son and pushed him on the swings and stood with him on the roundabout. His grannie used to take him in his pram and sit on a bench in the bowling green.
One day I'll go and walk aound again. I hope it hasn't changed too much.
One of the games we played was tracking, and if we could get hold of a stick of chalk we had endless hours of fun. One of us would set of at a pace and head off to the park marking arrows on walls and pavements, never in an obvious place and always at long intervals. When you set off from Witton Road there were five roads leading to the park, and any one of them could have been the tracking route, so we split up until we found the first arrow. The game was to find the leader. Sometimes it took us hours, we always aimed to end up near the Hall, so we had to get past the Parkies who were not too keen to let us past the lower part of the park.
The grass was always kept cut with 'keep off' notices everywhere, so of course we had to walk on it. The steps leading from the terraces were another temptation to us, the game was not to walk on the steps but balance on the concrete edgings.
Another game was hide and seek. When we got tired of playing around our own houses, or had been moved on by people who were fed up with us running up and down their entries we used the park. Near the bowling green there were huge Laurel hedges that were always clipped into shape with hollows in the middle; you could hide in there for ages without being found.
For a few years a marquee was put up and concerts were held in them. This was a real treat for us and we sat spell bound watching all the acts. There was alwasy a talent spotting contest, and my ambitions to go to Holywood were ended when my rendition of April Showers got me nowhere, it just embarrasssed my pals.
We rarelly had any money, but if by chance somebody had a couple of pennies we would all share a bottle of pop from the cafe.
We were not allowed into the Hall without an adult, so it held mysteries for us. We knew of the battle during the Civil War, and that you could still see the hole from the cannon ball. There were the stories of Dicks Garret too, but it was not until most of us were at work that we saw it all for ourselves.
In my teenage years I played tennis there, and after chuch on Sundays in the summer we gals showed our sophistication by going for a walk in the park. As a young mom I took my little son and pushed him on the swings and stood with him on the roundabout. His grannie used to take him in his pram and sit on a bench in the bowling green.
One day I'll go and walk aound again. I hope it hasn't changed too much.
