[dotti34]

My brother used to go tickling trout and then would have to hide his spoils in his towel as it was illegal to take fish from the river – don’t ask me why because whoever owned the reach of that part of the river never fished there. We went swimming and playing in that river – even though we were aware that further upstream there were probably dead cows and sheep floating in it. None of us got any dreadful disease from this.

We had conker competitions, marble championships, went train spotting – hanging over the bridges while the trains went under us. We also walked along the train tracks because wasn’t that the quickest way to get from one place to another.

We went sledging down hills when the snow came. The bigger the hill the better. At Easter time we rolled hard boiled eggs down the same hills, they cracked open like it’s a wonder our heads hadn’t when we were sledging.

…and yes, I encouraged my own children to be adventurous and to go climb trees – and they did!