Everybody knew everybody. Kids would all play together, Mums and Dads would socialise together when they were able to.
In our village we had annual Fetes, Show days, the Circus.
We had seasons when we would play games including Marbles, Hopscotch and Konkers.
We had our Football and Cricket seasons.
The village Football field was busy whatever the season. Everything, all the sports, shows and so on, happened at our Football field. It was the meeting place for anything and everything. It was also our playground, with the usual swings, roundabouts and more.
I lived in three different houses in my village. The houses got larger as my family got larger. I was the second eldest of eight children.
We had good neighbours most of the time, little old ladies who were very friendly, spoke with us, gave us lollies. In return, we would go to the shop for them, or clear up the leaves around their property. Especially in October and the start of November when we were leading up to Guy Fawkes night. We always had a massive bonfire and fireworks, obviously at the Football field. The Chip van, the Hot Dog van, Doughnuts and more. Loud music would be playing through the speakers, you could hear it all around the village.
But we also had a particularly nasty old neighbour who lived on her own, had never married and hated kids. One day her cat was found all cut and bleeding. The village Policeman came to our house on his pushbike. He knew ‘all us kids’ and our dads. Sometimes, not very often, if he caught us doing something wrong, like double dinking on a bike, he would stop us, tell us not to do it and threaten to tell our dad. That was scary!
Anyway, he told my Mum that we had been throwing stones at the old lady’s cat and being cruel to it. He also said that the lady had reported us to the RSPCA. Mum told us off, threatening that dad would belt us when he got home.
We told mum it wasn’t true and that we had done nothing to this neighbour’s cat. Old Bat.
Anyway, I was a junior RSPCA member, I had a certificate, so why would I hurt or let anyone else hurt the cat?
Later, a different man came to the door in a very flash car. He explained to Mum he had spoken to the Policeman and told him we hadn’t hurt the cat. He had checked the cat and found it had been attacked by another cat, it hadn’t been hit with stones. So, thankfully, we didn’t get a belt from Dad.
All in all, I grew up in a very close-knit village which I remember quite clearly to this day.
Phil Hughes
April 2023