We’d get out on a few school trips from Cookridge Primary School. I remember going to Kirkstall Abbey and the Abbey House Museum that was rather boring and had reconstructions of 1800 street scenes. The fun school trip was to Pudsey park. They had an old steam roller that I loved. Most of the engine parts had been removed but you were able to open a hatch in the engine room and crawl into the boiler and through to the outside somehow! There must be a lot of people with fond memories of it as there is even a facebook page for it. It is obviously way too dangerous for today’s kids but some folk have taken it upon themselves to renovate it. https://www.facebook.com/p/Did-you-play-on-the-Pudsey-Park-Steamroller-1959-to-1986-100064817557569/
John and Jocelyn came from Australia this year. John was dads older brother and the favourite with my Grandma Clark. My mum always thought dad had suffered as he was ignored in place of the older ‘golden child’. In the end I think grandma scared John off and he went to work in forestry in Papua New Guinea and settled around Brisbane. All my mum remembers is how quiet John was and how didn’t say a word which is a different experience to what I had when I met him years later. Jocelyn on the other hand was very loud and brash and didn’t mince words. My mum said she swore like a trooper. Mum had said she felt so sorry for grandma, they had stayed with the Clarks for most of the 3 months, she offered to let them stay in Cookridge a little longer! They had 2 kids David and Diane, they were both very blond and ‘Aussie’ and were a bit younger than us. I remember at the time David was a little cocky and brattish and I didn’t get on with him or enjoy his boasting.
It does seem when we were younger we used to get a lot more snow in the UK than in later years in my childhood. Based on photos this was a very snowy year. It was always so fun for us as kids when it snowed, we’d be outside making snowballs, snowmen and generally getting very wet. There was no special quick dry insulated gear back then, you’d get wet and then cold and you’d stay outside until your feet and fingers were so cold you could not feel them at which point you’d retreat to the inside and the warm fire. Dad was always warning us not to move your skin too close, you’ll get chilblains! If other kids had sleds they would be mostly plastic and store bought ones, not us, my dad of course made one with wood and metal runners. To be honest the plastic ones were quicker but dads never broke and was still in the house when he passed away! It was heavy to pull, but down at the bottom of the garden and across Moseley Beck we had a railway embankment. We’d all pile down there and dad would launch us down the hill. We’d fit 3 on if you all laid on top of each other, usually my sister and me on top of him, body parts sometimes got caught under the front of the sled but we never had broken bones. When we got older we progressed to Otley Chevin, there were serious hills here that were very steep and you just had to make sure if you were on top you rolled off and gave the others time to roll off if it got going too fast or before it crashed into trees or rocks at the bottom of the hill!
In the summer the railway embankment by home and Otley Chevin were great places to pick bilberries and blackberries. We could get on a walking trail, which I think is long since closed and follow the railway up to the Bramhope train tunnel. The tunnel was over 2 miles long and 24 people died during its construction in the 1840s! At some point we could take detours from the railway and a popular hike went left at Pounds Farm. over the railway bridge and headed on a dirt road towards Scotland Lane where you could keep going to the airport or turn back towards Horsforth and loop back home. The other route we’d try to take was to follow Moseley Beck to its source! Despite a few tries I don’t think we ever fully made it, too many obstacles in the way!
We’d often have tourist steam trains going past the back garden! The Flying Scotsman built in 1923 was the first to reach 100mph but I loved the Mallard. It had a striking blue colour and was a streamlined shape. Built in 1938 it held the world record speed of 126 mph at one point. Someone would always know when a steam train was coming and we’d always go out to watch it shoot past at it billowed out white steam. We had a few trips out on steam trains, it was exciting for my dad and a big day trip out when it occurred but he didn’t like to part with his money that often. I believe we passed the bottom of the garden once but 1978 was the year when we took a day trip up to Carlisle from Leeds on the famous Settle to Carlisle Railway taking the Evening Star and went to see Hadrian’s wall!
York was a favourite day trip which was perfect for my dads steam engine passion. They had the national railway museum and it was free. It was a steam engine enthusiast’s heaven. Rachel and I wouldn’t have the attention span to stay there too long but dad would have stayed all day if he could! Lucky for us, back then, York had plenty of other free attractions. York Minster was always high on the list and my parents would go to great lengths to point out the Rose Window that was beautiful. The grandeur of the inside always impressed. The Shambles was close by, used as Diagon Alley in Harry Potter, the top floors overhung the streets below lined with tourist souvenir shops. We’d nearly always picnic in York Museum Gardens where the excitement was the peacocks especially the males if they fanned their tails! The city walls were always popular and being a walker I always enjoyed this especially as one side had no barrier and had big drops so there was the danger element! If we did spend money it always seemed to be the Castle Museum, a very boring and stale museum with 1800s reconstructed streets and reconstructed rooms with lots of old artifacts in glass cabinets. If you have kids don’t take them here! I’d always wanted to go to Cliffords Castle perched on top of a steep small hill or do a boat trip on the Ouse. In later years the Jorvik center opened as did the Chocolate Story. These were places we would have loved to have gone but never got to!
Church was a regular occurrence, but mum managed to get out of this in later years when she started doing nights as a district nurse! We went to South Parade Baptist Church and it was a very dull affair. Halfway through the service the kids would leave and go to Sunday School. Things livened up at the church when we got a new minister, a lot of the old fuddy duddies weren’t too happy but he was progressive and I’m sure made the services more entertaining. For my part with the minister came a son who I heard described and a little off the rails with his behaviour. He knew all these secret doors in the old church building that would take you down access tunnels to internal courtyards only viewable from internal rooms, or he’d take me in the organ room and laugh as he pulled the small organ pipes out and bent them so they would not work! I was a gullible kid and he egged me to look under the toilet stall door once when someone was sitting on the crapper! Luckily for me the church member was not a total square and just gave me a strict warning.
We lived about 10 miles from our church but my grandma Davies and mum had gone there for ever as had the Clark family when they lived up in Leeds and my mum had lived within walking distance. Grandma was the church secretary too and was there every day. She lived on a street called Alma Road – after she moved it became the location of the last murder for the Yorkshire ripper! My grandma had always lived in this neighbourhood. When my mum was younger they’d lived on Wood Lane just around the corner. The house was art deco style and we’d go around for sunday dinners sometimes. It’s funny what you remember but I do remember eating rabbit a few times at grandmas. The other nice thing we got going to Alma road was KFC, I think we only went there once for a special treat and to be honest I’m not sure I’m its biggest fan. The best place we went to was Bryan’s fish and chips, from what I remember they were top notch. Unfortunately it closed in 2023 and changed to a pizza restaurant! A bit sad as it was set up in 1923!
Grandma lived next to an old couple who I don’t think had kids, Winnie and her husband. I always remember that my mum commented on how they went to the Lounge or Cottage Road cinemas every Tuesday to watch a movie. Back then that seemed extravagant to someone who’s family didn’t do movies apart from very special occasions like the odd birthday.
As I mentioned free accommodation was always welcome, to be honest my dad was tight with money but we really didn’t have a huge amount so without free we just would not have done as much. Grandma’s neighbours had a second house in Hawes, up in the Yorkshire Dales, see I told you they were extravagant! It looks like we stayed there in 1973 and again in 1978. I remember the 1978 trip with grandma in the old Triumph Herald. Grandma was the Murray Mint keeper and they would get whipped out sparsely for us to enjoy on the car journey as a special treat. I do remember taking what was probably the road up from Keld past the Buttertubs renowned for its steepness and thinking this little old Triumph, stuffed with the 5 of us just ain’t going to make it, it struggled and spluttered but got there in the end! We had trips to White Scar Caves with all the stalactites and stalagmites that had formed in the limestone cave, this was impressive to a young boy. There are photos around Hawes or Clapham, Keld, Gayle, Dent and Hardraw Force, one of the tallest single drop falls in the UK. There was also the lovely Ingleton Falls that I’m assuming was free back in the day! We visited Ribblehead Viaduct that we would have crossed on the steam train ride on the Settle Carlisle Railway. I also remember Rachel and I stayed up in an attic room. I’m not sure what Rachel and I were up to, I do remember dad shouting up on numerous occasions for us to pipe down and go to sleep! The thing I remember most though was a trip up Ingleborough – we got to the top, mum had already talked about nearly falling off the edge and Linda having saved her life in one of her youth hostelling experiences when she was younger. Well a huge rain and lightning storm came in. I don’t think we were ever at risk of falling off the steep edge at any time but to escape the rain and lightning we ran/slid down one side of the grassy hillside getting soaked with rainwater and sliding onto our backside for parts of it. There was a hasty change into a few dry clothes at the bottom before heading home to get dry. It sounded like mum had many other adventures with Linda besides the Ingleborough incident and mum tells the stories how Grandma would put them on the train to the Lakes for their youth hosteling experience and mum and Linda would get off at the next stop and hitchhike the whole way up!
There was the usual annual trip to Kent this year too – we had a trip to Rye and of course the Dymchurch Hythe Steam Railway!
Not sure if it was just us but my dad and grandad used to love playing french cricket as they called it. I don’t think I ever knew of anyone else who played it! For this you had a bat to protect your legs, the bowler threw from wherever your last hit was and if they got your legs you were out. You had to protect your legs and give the ball a good whack to get it as far away as possible. It was a beach game in Kent and a game we played in the back field at home.
