Was It Safer In The 50s ?

A Memory of Welling.

I moved to Welling at the age of 8 in 1955. We lived in Roseacre Road, near the Guy Earl of Warwick, where the 89 buses terminated. The house was a 30's semi, but it seemed quite grand after the prefab we used to live in. The house backed onto Danson Park, so my 5 year old brother and I used to spend many happy hours roaming, particularly in winter, when we used to have it to ourselves. Although our parents were devoted to us, nobody seemed concerned that we were out on our own in the park for hours, often as dusk was falling. All the kids in the area knew the strange men in grubby raincoats who wandered through the woods and most of us instinctively gave them a wide berth. It must have been a safer world then and it is a shame that kids can't enjoy unfettered fun in the park these days.