A Fantastic Childhood

A Memory of Seaton.

I was born in Seaton next to the Geoge and Dragon in 1949. I still live in the village, in a house we moved into in 1952.
Seaton gave me a great childhood. In the 50's it was very much an agricultural village with 7 working farms. I began working on one of them at the age of 8yrs and when leaving school at the age of 14 I was employed by one of the village farmers. My memories of driving cattle and sheep arround the village will never leave me and serves as a constant reminder of where I began my working life.
I rember the "Roadman" Mr. Licorish who kept the village tidy, yes we had our very own village roadman.
I remember the farm fires in the village when complete barns of straw and hay were destroyed in minutes.
I remember the village dances when "Dave and his Music" used to entertain us with only a record player and set of drums.
I remember the village fete, wild flower competitions for the children and 3 legged races. This all took place in the field below church farm, now with houses built on.
I remember the Seaton cricket team playing matches on the cricket field and then retiring to the other pub for beer and sandwiches.
Like one of my school pals, Rodger, I remember going fishing in the Welland, but most of all the wonderful times we had on the train station.
It was the hub of our activities, our youth club, our playing field, our meeting place and our place to ply our train spotting hobbies.
Seated in a redundant carriage in a siding we could train spot with the use of a telescope on a cold wet day with a bottle of pop and sandwiches.
On occasions we would catch the train to Rugby for a days train spotting (average age 12 yrs) unheard of today. What a childhood, we were so lucky.

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