Childhood Memories.

A Memory of Washwood Heath.

My family and I, 5 sisters and a brother, lived in Nigel road just up from the Washwood Heath Road. I was born in the house in Nigel Road in 1948 so were my siblings. My memory is very vivid of my times there until I left home to get married in 1969. Ward End Park was our playground. In the summer it would be football nearly every day down at the sandpits, as we called them, no grass to play on only sand. We would put our coats down as goalposts and played whatever the weather. The park always looked nice, well tended flower beds and great for boating on the pond. Most weekends in the summer there would be cricket games played with the players in their whites and spectators relaxing in the sun watching the games or having a picnic. During the big freeze of 1963 I remember many happy hours sleding down the steep hill towards the pond and of walking across the frozen pond. I recall that we had a lot of freedom to roam the park and got into mischief sometimes; once it was fighting with my mate Joey Cahill and being dragged off by the parkies and taken to their hut for a good telling off. I keep meaning to pop into the park sometime maybe this year, it's been about 50 years since my last visit, I wonder if its changed much in that time?

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