Many years ago

If you find yourself in Babbacombe with some time on your hands why not pop into BYGONES. The items that are on display from the past will bring back so many memories of things that were once a part of your life, or would have been found in your home.

Life for a child growing up on the Buckland Estate in Newton Abbot was fun and carefree and most of the things we played with we had to make. Yes trips to the local tip to find old pram wheels to built our trolleys that we would almost kill ourselves on as we drove them down over Buckland Break. We also collected bike frames and wheels etc to build our own bikes as our parents never had the money to buy us new ones. We would have to make the trip into town to Tower Cycles to buy such things as brake blocks etc, or chain links to join together a chain we had found and had to cut down to size.

We would spent so much time in the woods, carving our names into trees or looking for the perfect branch to use to make our next catapult. We would also play war games in the woods, but then in those days you could carry around with you a toy gun and even a penknife for that matter. Every boy owned a bag of marbles and we would play with them for hours, simply pleasures that kept us happy and out of any trouble.

The worst we might get up to was playing knock out ginger, or scrumping some apples, hardly the crimes of the century, but watch out if the local bobby caught you as if he did then expect a clip around your ears. Building tree dens was another pastime we enjoyed, but the thing I love most was my collection of corgi cars.

I tried not to spend any of the two and six pence pocket money, I just wanted to save up and buy the next model on my list. I maybe wrong but I seem to remember I bought them in a shop that later became a sports shop to the right of the DRUM CLOCK in Newton Abbot. Corgi cars were so much better than the Dinky ones and cost that much more, the cars cost about seven and sixpence, while models such as the Bedford Car transporter cost twenty one shillings.

I loved that spring think already mentioned on here that went down the stairs on its own, a simply toy but one that fascinated you as you never really understood at that age how it worked. Who remembers those red type things we put photo discs in and looked through? What were they called? The girls played with their jacks and skipping ropes, but we as boys joined in at times.

What a time of innocence it was back then, a time we were free as children to go out and play all day and there was never any talk that some man might be coming to take you away. Yes we were told not to talk and take sweets from strangers and we never did really, but in saying that we never felt in any danger if someone we did not know talked to us.