I think we must have moved to Egremont at the beginning of the long
school holidays, as I don’t remember starting school immediately. We
lived on a long cul-de -sac called Windrigg Close. At the top end there
were prefabs, temporary housing, built after the war, and at the bottom
end were new houses, some of them still being constructed. Between the
two types of houses were open, grassy spaces on each side of the road.
Beyond the grass on one side was a high fence, behind which was a
chocolate factory, and beyond the grass on the other side was a field
and a farm.
For the first few months we lived in a prefab, then when our new house
was completed, we moved the short distance down the road. I am sure this
house came with my father’s job, as all the fathers who lived in those
houses worked at Sellafield. A lot of them were, like us, new to the
area and had moved for work.
It was actually an ideal place to live for a five year old. From the day
we moved in there were children knocking at the door asking could I come
out to play. We would sometimes have a dog or two with us. All day,
every day, there were groups of children of various ages engaged in
different activities about the street: ball games, skipping, hopscotch,
sitting on someone’s step with pads, crayons and pencils. Sometimes we
would be in somebody’s garden playing on a swing or in a home- made
tent. Off to one side was a large concrete area surrounded by garages,
one for each of the new houses. This was a perfect area for riding
scooters, tricycles and bikes and roller skating, but out of bounds
around tea time when people were coming home from work in their cars.
There was a communal outside tap, for washing cars, which we were not
supposed to touch. In reality, I remember a lot of messing about with
water pistols and similar, particularly in the hot weather.
No family had more than one car, and many of the women could not drive.
The majority of them were housewives, although a few did have part time
jobs. Only Mrs Ryder, opposite us, worked full time and she was a
teacher. I think it was slightly frowned upon at the time for married
women to work.
At the bottom of my friend’s garden was a high wire netting fence and
over the fence was the chocolate factory. We used to go to the fence in
the hope that her uncle who worked there would see us and come out. If
he did, we knew that he would bring us some bags of chocolate mis-
shapes. I don’t think he was actually her uncle, probably a family
friend, but in those days the children never called the adults by their
first names. It was always Mr or Mrs Whatever, or in the case of someone
you knew well, Aunty or Uncle. So, for example, I knew our next door
neighbour as Aunty Jean, even though she was no relation to us.
I don’t think at that time, being only just five, I was allowed to go
any further than the end of the street, but later on, when I was
probably seven or eight, we used to climb over the fence and go to play
on the farm. There was a girl a bit older than myself, a boy a bit
younger, and another little boy who lived there. The farm with all its
outbuildings was a great place for hide and seek and there were trees to
climb. There was always a flock of geese wandering round, which most of
us avoided whenever possible as we were scared of the gander who used to
hiss and chase anyone who didn’t live on the farm.
Growing up in the sixties, particularly in a rural area, we had a lot of
freedom.
Female, Born in 1954, North England
July 2021
"Happy-go-skippy"