Rounders in The Road

I was brought up in Brewood, in the cottage which is called South View and later next door in what is now 38 Shop Lane. There were four children in our family, I had  two older brothers and a younger sister. Our friends came from the cottages (some no longer standing) in Shop Lane, and Horsebrook Lane.

We would gather at the junction of Horsebrook, Shop Lane and Bargate Lane where there was a triangle of grass we knew as The Green Patch. There we would play rounders using the centres of the various roads as our bases. When we tired of this game we would play in the disused chapel that stood where the entrance of Pendryl Close is now. Later we would congregate under the gas lamp which stood at the top of Horsebrook and lit the junction. I can remember many long summer evenings spent laughing, joking, sometimes arguing and at times fighting, until we were called in by our parents.

I can't ever remember being disturbed in our games of rounders, whereas now the junction where we played is a busy one with cars and farm vehicles passing every few seconds. It would be a very foolhardy child who played there now.