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David Keery, of Littleover, recalls some of the people he knew and the games he and other youngsters played back in the 1930s and 1940s, when the street was their playground and one word from the local policemen was enough to strike fear into their souls.

What a pleasant jolt to my memory when I read Connie Topliff’s article about when she was confined in the isolation hospital at Breadsall for three years as a child, even though she believed there was nothing wrong with her.

It certainly took me back 80 years. I am the same age as Connie. Like her, I was brought up in Shaftesbury Street, Normanton. I even seemed to follow the same path in some ways – with sun ray treatment at Mill Hill Clinic, spending some time in the Derwent Sanatorium at Breadsall with diphtheria.

I am sure she remembers what a busy street it was, with Sibley’s sweetshop at the bottom of the street, the butcher’s, Taylor’s grocery shop and Wigley’s bakery at the top, facing the Co-op.

On the other side, there was Fanny Eley’s public house, Jones’ fish and chip shop, Bevan’s newspaper shop and Brookes’ Middle House pub.

I lived next to the pub with my sister, Jean, and twin Shieran. Next door was the bookmaker’s shop and, at the bottom of the road, the off-licence.

I remember the elderly ladies sitting on the front steps or on a chair outside their houses. My mother, along with other tenants in the street, painted the front step white and the window sills red (or whatever colour they liked).

PC Bobby Doxey, who lived in the street, used to ride about on a bike, his cape slung over his shoulder. His appearance and word, a simple “David”, “John” or the name of whichever child he was talking to, would put the fear of God into us. He knew us all by our first names and would simply say: “Tell your mum and dad I will be round to talk to them.”

Connie’s words started me remembering the names of the people who lived in the street, even the games we played. I am sure Connie recalls them – Tip Read and family, the Bilson sisters, Doreen Poulton and family, the Erwins, the Amatts, Billy Low and family, the Riddings, Margaret Tricklebank and family, the Brookes, Turners, Treeces, Hemmings, Mosses, Greensmiths, Swarbrookes.

I remember Connie’s brothers coming home on leave. Reg, I believe, went to work at Ewart Chainbelt.

Youngsters pictured playing tick and it in the West End in the 1930s

There were not many cars about in those days, so we were able to play street games quite safely – games like tick and it, hide and seek, hopscotch, whip and top, skipping, leapfrog, relay races, lapperty.

The latter involved one person standing with their back against the wall to steady those who bent down to form a line. Then they tried to see how many could run and jump on their backs before the whole line collapsed.

We played a game with cigarette cards, where they were stood up in a line along the wall of the house at the front. Then you went to the edge of the pavement and flicked your cards to try to knock the other cards down. Those you knocked down, you kept.

There were a lot of marble games. We used to take an old shoe box and cut about six round holes in it, a little larger than an ordinary marble. The holes were numbered one to six. Then you went to the pavement edge and rolled your marble, trying to get it in one of the holes.

If you were successful, the boy or girl who was running the game gave you the marbles to the tune of the number of the hole the marble went into. But they kept the marbles that dropped into a hole, as well as the ones that didn’t. We also played shuttlecock and a myriad other games.

My best memory is of looking after the bikes of people who were attending Rams’ home games at the Baseball Ground. We would store them in our back gardens, charging 2d a bike. We all had our regulars.

Thanks for the memories, Connie.

Do you have any pictures of youngsters playing street games in the 1930s, 40s and 50s that we could add to our archives? If so, we would love to see them.

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