The Best Days Of My Life

A Memory of Hexham.

I attended this camp about 6 times when I was at St John Fisher School, Gateshead in the early 60's. A school from Middlesboro would also have been at the camp. I have only fond memories of this place; £1 for 2 weeks all in, plus 2 week's off school, it was a no brainer. We went out on trips to the Kielder Forest, walked along the Roman wall, visited Blanchland Abbey, a tour of Hexham Abbey and we visited a local haunt called Devil's Water. We had cinema shows through a projector on some evenings and had dance nights with the girls. It was lights out at 9.30pm sharp and we were up at 7.30am the next morning. We had bunk and locker inspections every morning and points were awarded. Our parents could visit us on the Sunday. The food was the butt of many a joke but it was okay, I seem to remember lots of chips. I had two favourite teachers; Mr Howard and Mr Darrah, who was popular with all the lads. We had great fun without the XBOX or the Internet but I won't knock it because the Internet and Google have taken me back to a part of my childhood I loved most. Thanks for the picture and the memories, Paul.