[john conway]

Originally Posted by gdm27

Yep those are they! Do you remember when the play area was in no way PC. When I was a kid they had swings that you could do the bumps on. A ride shaped like a Christmas tree that went round and round and from side to side. Hands up how many people lent on the sitting area forgetting that their legs where under it only to remember when the whole thing came crashing down on your knees!!!! Happy days OUCH!

Yes, the ride shaped like a Christmas tree was called the umbrella. There was also a big bench swing with handles that could seat maybe eight kids. One kid would stand at each end holding the bench support struts and get the bench swinging really high. I remember there was also a big rocking horse that could hold perhaps six kids, a normal roundabout, and the big slide (“helter skelter”, sorry if the spelling is wrong but that’s how we said it as kids) that you could make really slippy by rubbing candle wax on it, kids use to shoot right off the end. In those days, there were several park keepers and in the summer, you had to book the public tennis courts they were that popular. When I worked at Howard & Bulloughs I was in the works Tennis club so I could use the private tennis courts with the changing rooms/pavilion. Although I’m not sure if it was also used by the general public as well. When I come to think about it I seem to remember playing on these courts with our school PE teacher, there were only a few of us kids at St Oswald’s school who could play tennis.