I have just returned to the Brighton area having lived some 35 years abroad. Before leaving the UK I lived in Rottingdean and before that in The Ridgway, Woodingdean. I came to Woodingdean as a child of five years in 1940 to stay with my grandparents to avoid the bombing in London. Many children were evacuated from London at that time to unknown destinations, 'keepers' and treatments. Some very good and some appalling. I was fortunate in that I could go to my grandparents. I have fond memories of Woodingdean House, which stood next to 'Three Cornet Field' as it had a number of horse chestnut trees in its grounds where 'us kids' of The Ridgway 'gang' used to go to collect conkers in the late autumn. Creeping into the grounds full of trepidation and fearful of being caught - it was a great adventure for us. Most times we could collect the conkers from the ground but sometimes, when the ground level supply ran out, we fired a barrage of stones and fallen branches up into the branches of the trees to induce them to come down. We were also very skilled in the art of making catapults from a forked branch of a yew tree, pieces of leather from an old shoe and quarter-inch thick model airplane elastic. These we also fired up into the trees bringing down not only conkers but showers of leaves and small branches. Whilst this was all great fun it was also highly dangerous and on occasions a head or body would be struck by the falling missiles and debris. Today this would all be regarded as anti-social behaviour and be awarded an ASBO. But then it just kept the kids amused. In all the time we spent there we never saw Mr Miller.