Rotherham Clifton Park Childrens Paddling Pool c.1955

A Memory of Rotherham.

I lived at Ecclesfield and I remember being taken to Cliton Park as a yearly treat aged 7. It must have been a Bank Holiday because the pool was full of kids and lots of parents sat around the edge on the steps. With it being round it was easy to get disorientated, it was scary when you looked up and your parents were not where you thought they should be. It was difficult to get a turn on the bicycles and toy horses but I remember the bikes having peddles in the front wheels and they were set concentrically which made you bob up and down. Like lots of other families we took a picnic lunch which we ate sat on the grass bank outside the tea hut.
We didn't have a car and remember our day out as quite an adventure, travelling on several buses to get to this magical place. It wasn't until I was in my twenties and had children of my own that I discovered it was only in Rotherham, a distance of 6.5 miles, which today would take about twenty minutes by car.