fragments of childhood…
I was born in 1952 in Sheffield and lived at Onslow Road next to Franklin's carpet factory.
My earliest memories are happy ones. It seemed as if each day was filled with sunshine and summer lasted forever. And if not summer then it was the icy grip of winter, frosted windows and snow deep enough for sledging. These two seasons alternated without recourse to spring and autumn.
The year was punctuated by birthdays, the annual holiday, Bonfire Night and Christmas.
My playground was Endcliffe Park, scene of my greatest adventures. It was also the place where often I could be seen beating my grey socks against a tree to drive out the water having fallen once again into the river.
School was Greystones Primary School followed by Greystones Junior School until I was 11. It was at Junior School that my 2nd hobby, chemistry, came to fruition. Not content with the mild-mannered chemicals available in the "Merit" chemistry set I discovered the chemical suppliers, J Preston, on West Street. There I could buy proper reagents, real chemistry glassware, thermometers and pipettes. The result of course was nothing but disastrous for my clothes, the carpets, the decorations, the entire room. But it was the greatest joy seeing the smoke billow out the skylight in my attic bedroom and the woods below Brincliffe Edge still echo to this day to the sound of my home-made copper pipe banger.
As kids we walked everywhere. Miles. Walks along the old Houndkirk Road, picnics at Blackbrook and by the river at Longshaw. Long summer days getting tanned whilst my hair became bleached. It was always summer.
