Gowing up in Huttons Ambo

Swing Bridge c1960
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I grew up in Huttons Ambo and my mum still lives there today. What a wonderful carefree childhood. We lived in Low Hutton for a few years, my mum (Eileen Routledge, brother Simon and sister Sarah), and then moved to High Hutton and lived next door to my Gran and Grandad Gibson. We used to play down by the river and the swing bridge and loved standing in the middle making it swing, on school summer holidays we would take off with a picnic every day and go through the fields making bale dens. We had so many places to go play and hide. I was baptised in the village church. My brother went to the village school but it closed down before I started although I do remember the school teacher Mrs Ronald, she carried on living there after it closed. Leaman's shop was a must every Sunday morning after Sunday School to spend our pocket money on sweets, black jacks, gob stoppers etc. I remember the train stopping there to take us to Scarborough on a Sunday School trip. We used to earn pocket money potato picking for the local Mansels farm. Those were the days.