Growing Up In Slaugham 1961

A Memory of Slaugham.

I was born in Slaugham at No1 Carpenters Arms in 1961.  It was the very last house on the right hand side before the White Gate.  What a great time all of us kids had and I hope they share fond memories like I do.  The Talmans, The Shoplands and then of course us, The Bottings.  There were 5 girls, 4 older and 1 younger,  and then 5 boys, 2 older and then 3 younger.  My fondest memories are of playing Down-The-Woods.  We spent hours and hours down there and the parents had to take it in turn to give us all a call for dinner in the evening.  We played cowboys and indians down there and one time we got hold of a piece of thick rope to swing from a tree and boy did we swing!!  I can't remember who put the rope up over the tree limb, probably one of the older boys,  but I reckon it was up 15' and then someone made a big knot down at the bottom.  What was so incredible was that this large tree was growing on the side of a stream and the limb spread out long and wide across it.  What we did was grab as high up on the rope as possible, swing out from one side of the tree, over the brook and then leap back onto the other side of the tree and see who could go the furthest.  We spent hours and hours swinging and thrusting out our legs right at the last moment to see who could land furthest away.
Down-The-Woods was also where I determined that I didn't like smoking.  Some of us would nick our parents butt-ends, cigarette papers and matches, go racing Down-The-Woods and see what we could come up with.  I don't think any of us took a liking to smoking butt ends, so we decided to try oak leaves rolled in newspaper and I can tell you that didn't go down well either!  We were innocent and had so much fun down there. Living in Slaugham was wonderful.  It wasn't just your parents raising you, but it was a village affair too.  The whole village helped raise each and every child and us kids were all very lucky.   My deepest thanks goes to Auntie Valerie and Uncle Arthur, Uncle Dick and Little Auntie Barbera and Uncle Bob and Big Auntie Barbera.  THANKYOU.