Times In Sidney Park

A Memory of Grimsby.

1950's: As a young lad I lived just a few minutes from this park (which is in Cleethorpes not Grimsby) and so spent a lot of time there. This pond was home to many hundreds of small fish, which I assume to be sticklebacks and minnows. We couldn't afford nets or rods so we fished using a jam jar attached to a length of string. The water was clear and we could see the fish so we would lower the jam jar to the bottom of the pond and then slowly drag it along in an attempt to get the fish to swim into it when we would shapely lift the jar from the water.

During the winter the pond would freeze over and several dozen of us kids would go out on the ice, so many that at times it got quite crowded. A couple of kids had ice skates but the vast majority of us "skated" on the soles of our shoes. When the ice started to melt a gap of several inches would develop between the edge of the ice and the wall of the pond. The whole ice sheet would move.

Also in the park was a playground with swings, roundabouts, a tall slide and the notorious witches hat amongst others. For safety reasons the top of the slide was enclosed by a box made of wooden slats with the appropriate entrance and exit. This was a challenge for us lads, and some of the lasses, and we would climb outside the box and up on the roof - great view but it was rather scary.

I revisited the park a couple of years ago and it has changed little over the years, slight modifications to the shape of the pond and the addition of a footbridge over it. The playground is still there but without the tall slide, witches hat and other "dangerous" rides. It has been sanitised with soft little rides and the tar and stone surface has been replaced with chopped bark. This may have reduced the number of grazed knees and miscellaneous cuts and bruises but made it boring and almost thrill-less.

The park fields were also used by local schools, Barcroft St and Elliston St, for their sports.

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