Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 15th April, 2023)

When our children were youngsters we had gone to the park and after watching them on the swings I said to my hubby.." I'd love to get on a sewing" so...when we thought everyone had gone home at teatime we both got on a swing,it was lovely until a park ranger came along on his motor bike, asked us both how old we were and made us get off..but oh, those ten minutes on the swings were heaven.

I remember when the swings and slide were in a different place in Wigan Park when I was a child. They were right up on a hill in front of Rylands Mill and the slide was, by today's standards, VERY high! Perhaps "health and safety" have poked their noses in since then. I can't recall any accidents except one when my friend Mary, (now my sister-in-law), fell off a swing and had to have a stitch in her knee, (she still has the scar!) but no-one would have dreamed of complaining to the council back then. You were just told to "gerrup and stop snivellin'!" Your Mam said "You're not dead", spit on her hanky and wiped the graze, gave you a jam butty out of the picnic bag, and you got back on the slide. Job done!

It’s great for the youngsters - we had to make do with climbing up spouts and gas lamps! Or a tree in the woods later on. I seem to remember swings on the old bowling Green off Scholes -I might be dreaming about that though…

Looks o.k. but not as good as sliding down the Black Rook on a little square piece of oil cloth . The Luge was invented on the Black Rook but we didn't wear frogmen suits then .

Veronica, you are not dreaming about the swings on the Scholes bowling green site. I seem to remember they were in the area overlooking St Georges school.

Thanks Derek, I thought it might be an age thing! There was also some swings behind Scholes Pictures down the slope at the very end.

Irene. You might remember the old playground on the Clarington Grove rec - where the St Pats rugby ground is now. The playground had one of those roundabouts you could spin round. One day about 1961 I - a 9 year old-- was on it and not was spooning really fact. Basically I fell off it and landed at speed on the concrete surround. I was lucky to only have cuts and grazes, but it could easily have been much worse. Sometimes the H&S changes really have been for the better.

Carolean, Thankyou for your point of view, and you are absolutely right in so many ways. There were things that needed addressing and which have been improved due to Health and Safety. However, there are certain things, eg; schools closing when there of a couple of inches of snow on the ground because parents will sue the school if their children fall in the snow-covered playgrounds that you and I and our contemporaries used to make slides in! Yes, there WAS a need for better safety issues but we have gone from one extreme to another!

I’m proud I loved a gas lamp ,
I tried to climb a spout ,
we sat beneath as children ,
with Summer deep about ,
nights would be forever
dreams that ran for us
no fear for what was coming
with our sky and lamp above
When snow came we would cuddle
and watch the gas lamp glow ,
as snow rushed by its face head ,
your choice , in what , you know

Looks like Mesnes Park - as seen on the 1840 OS Map - together with Mesnes Park Terrace and Mesnes Street. Wigan Park indeed!

Irene. Thanks orr reply. I just noticed wonderful typo in my post which should have read it was "spinning" really fast, not "spooning" which made me laugh.