My Childhood

I was born in Cookham in 1952. I attended Holy Trinity Primary School and sang in the church choir. One Remembrance Sunday I was given the honour of carrying the cross at the head of the procession from the church to the war memorial. I was extremely lucky to spend my childhood in such idyllic surroundings. My brothers and I, along with many of the other local children spent many hours swimming in the river at Odney or playing on Cockmarsh. In the winter when we had snow, we used a sheet of corrugated iron as a sledge to whiz down the steep slopes before being launched into the air by the track at the bottom, like a giant ski ramp. We would spend whole days playing in nearby Quarry Woods before the onset of the evening darkness forced us to return home. My gran lived in Station Road and on my way home from her house I would stay and watch the steam trains coming through the station. My father helped to build the cricket pavilion on the Green at Cookham Dean and was captain of the 1st Eleven for many years. I later played for them myself for a short while in my late teens. It was a fantastic site to play on with a view across to Winter Hill. After the match we would all troop into the Hare and Hounds for a well earned pint (or two). I was married in Cookham church in 1977 but sadly the area had by now become a victim of the commuter belt, and myself, and many of my schoolmates, were forced to leave the area as we could no longer afford to live there. I now live in Cornwall with my wife and two daughters, but have very fond memories of how Cookham once was.