Playing on the Streets of Horfield in the 1960s
Alice Pickford moved from Liverpool to Horfield and found it easy to make friends.
'They used to make me talk deliberately to hear the accent. You could play
anywhere in Horfield and you wouldn't get bothered.'
Linda Moore recalled catching insects in nets: 'it was only a certain time of the time that this used to happen and they used to say, 'junebugs are out!'
Some children in his street were better off according to Mervyn Ellery: "they used to get decent toys for Christmas and we used to have what was known as a molly-o, and they used to draw squares on the pavement with the toys in the squares and we used to chuck stones.'
He remembers that there was a landfill site where he and his friends would hang on to the back of the lorries, dig holes in the ground and build dens. 'I was a little terror. We had a little gang called the TTO gang - it was called the Tree Top Outlaws - and, you know, in those days you could go anywhere!' The children use to walk from Horfield to Blaise Castle, Snuff Mills and Severn Beach.
'Never anything violent, we weren't violent children in those days. We enjoyed ourselves. There was no such thing as drugs in our days, apart from cigarettes, which we used to make our own out of chrysanthemum leaves; used to dry 'em off and then roll 'em up in paper and light 'em. Stupid things really, but it was good.'
Linda Moore recalled catching insects in nets: 'it was only a certain time of the time that this used to happen and they used to say, 'junebugs are out!'
Some children in his street were better off according to Mervyn Ellery: "they used to get decent toys for Christmas and we used to have what was known as a molly-o, and they used to draw squares on the pavement with the toys in the squares and we used to chuck stones.'
He remembers that there was a landfill site where he and his friends would hang on to the back of the lorries, dig holes in the ground and build dens. 'I was a little terror. We had a little gang called the TTO gang - it was called the Tree Top Outlaws - and, you know, in those days you could go anywhere!' The children use to walk from Horfield to Blaise Castle, Snuff Mills and Severn Beach.
'Never anything violent, we weren't violent children in those days. We enjoyed ourselves. There was no such thing as drugs in our days, apart from cigarettes, which we used to make our own out of chrysanthemum leaves; used to dry 'em off and then roll 'em up in paper and light 'em. Stupid things really, but it was good.'