Up The Wood

We had no TVs, and there was not much on the radios so we made our own entertainment. One activity was playing up the local wood. We had two woods close to East Howle. One was called the Side Wood and the other was known as the Middle Wood. We just did the usual things, like making camps, climbing trees, playing on rope swings, eating worms, just the sort of things that young lads did in those days. Most of the time we were in the side wood, because as the name implies, the middle wood was in the middle of a field and to get there we had to cross the farmer's field which in the summer was always planted with something, invariably corn of one type or another. It was always risky crossing the field because you never knew when the farmer would appear and chase you. If he was on foot he always seemed to have a shotgun with him which was quite scary. On reflection I assume the gun was for shooting rabbits but we never thought that at the time. Another memory that has stayed with me all these years is of our butcher. My parents, like quite a few more people in East Howle, used to have a butcher called Billy Dale. Mr Dale had his business in the nearby town of Spennymoor and used to come to East Howle on a Saturday, sometimes very late at night. As all the houses were two up and two down most people had a table under the window in the living room. It was a regular occurance for my mother to leave the window unlocked, a plate, a note of what she wanted and some money on the table for Mr Dale then off to bed. When we got up on Sunday morning, meat on the plate, change was on the table and the window was closed. My memories of East Howle are many and varied, most of them good.