It was so spacious

Moved from Wood Street

I moved to The Linkway with Mum and Dad in 1959 when I was six years old. Previously we had lived in Wood Street but all that was demolished. Our new flat was so spacious compared to the previous little terrace. Instead of a street we had a lovely green to play on, right in front of our flat. I had my own bedroom for the first time in my life. I made many friends, and school holidays were so carefree. As children we could go blackberry picking, play hide and seek, skip with all our ropes tied together across the road and play hopscotch.

It was so nice and quiet then; at that time there were no cars to bother us.

A second childhood

I got married when I was nineteen and moved away for a few years. We returned when we bought our first house in Hollingbury Rise in 1978, when my second child was a few months old. Both my children had the happy childhood that I had. There were still many places to explore, and we did it together. It was like a second childhood for me, experiencing things all over again. I spent twenty very happy years in that house until my marriage ended and I moved away.