The following is a page from a family history book I wrote recently which relates my life in a village in Yorkshire in the late 40s early 50s after my father was killed in a mining accident and Mum was ill in hospital for some weeks.We moved into the only available property to be near her sister. When Mum was well enough we moved to Stainland, where we lived at the top of the village, in a very small rented back-to-back terraced house, number 1 Back New Street which backed onto New Street. Both roads alongside the houses were made with 'sets' similar to cobbles. There were tunnels or ginnels as we called them, between the two streets every three or so houses and we had great fun chasing through them until the neighbours came out to tell us off for making too much noise! We had no bathroom just an outside toilet across the yard. There was no electricity, the lighting was run by gas through a delicate mantle which broke easily if touched. We had a coal fire, a gas cooker and a gas boiler for heating water for baths and washing. The baths were taken by the fire in a large zinc bath - very cosy! No television of course and the radio was run by a large accumulator, a kind of battery containing acid which was taken to a shop to be charged up from time to time. I always had a pet usually a cat or rabbit though my ambition was to own a dog. This wish was never realised during my childhood as Mum quite rightly said we couldn't look after a dog properly whilst she was at work all day and I was at school. Instead I made friends with local dogs the first being Peggy a large yellow Labrador belonging to Miss Hague who lived nearby. Peggy had a son Tinker, a large black Labrador to whom I used to take meat bones. I was a little afraid of him as I was quite small and he used to leap up to get the bones but I still loved him! I was very fond of my cats though and one particularly which I used to dress in dolls clothes and it would lie in the pram quite happily as I pushed it round the street! A farming family lived just down the road and had four daughters and one son. Dorothy who was my age and Mary about a year older were my particular friends. I loved playing on the farm but first the children had chores to do with which I used to help. The farm reared mainly poultry with a few milking cows and hay was grown in one of the fields and we helped (?) during haymaking in the summer when we turned the hay with wooden rakes until it was dry enough to load onto the pony and cart which transported it down to the barn where it was stored to feed the dairy cows in winter. The children's mother, used to make nettle pop and I remember how delicious and refreshing it was and very welcome during the hot weather. When the chores were done in the long school holiday we would take a picnic and play down in nearby woods or down a steep hill where there was a shallow river, staying out until just before dusk. We seemed to have much more freedom to roam in those days when there were not as many cars as today. We would also play in the quiet roads and streets sometimes with a long skipping rope, one each side of the road, moving over occasionally when a car came by.hard to imagine these days! Of course we also played with dolls often in a large empty hen house which was divided into compartments - ideal for playing house when home made curtains were put up to the windows and dolls furniture, prams etc were moved in. There were fashions or crazes for various toys and games. A favourite was whip and top, a small wooden top with a metal point on which it would spin when encouraged by the whip made with a stick and a leather bootlace with a piece of string attached which would be wrapped around the top and unravelled with a flick of the wrist making the top spin. We would draw patterns with coloured chalks on the top which looked quite spectacular when spinning. Probably frowned upon in today's health and safety climate! Marbles were another craze when all my friends at school would buy marbles in a net bag with their pocket money and win or lose them during games. One of my favourite pastimes if playing on my own was batting a tennis ball against the shed wall. Good practice for games of tennis in later years In winter when we always had some snow, quite deep at times, we would go tobogganing on one of the many hilly local fields, sometimes hitting the stone wall at the bottom if we didn't fall off before reaching it! Sorry it's rather long!! Gwen