Did anybody take part in this night-time activity? You may know it as something else. I'm talking about a gang of you as kids crawling through people's back gardens over the walls trying not to get caught.

I grew up in Loxley, where we had a 'run' called 'The Grand National' fond on Woodstock Close. I can remember being catapulted with a King Edward a couple of times!!

Any stories??? :D

In my day I think it was called Back Hopping or Front Hopping. I used to participate and thought it was very exciting. The thrill of the chase and all that. Kind of like Knock a Door run. I think things have progressed along from those days though and are a bit more serious where the youth of today is concerned.

We used to call it Hedge Hopping... and we too had 'The Grand National' nr wear we lived.

Although it was around the Herdings area.
The last house on the block only had one way out (without going the whole way back along the route), and that way out were large iron gates.

these gates made a right racket, and when you've got 4-8 kids all doing the National at once, at varying speeds... it was quite amusing. These gate were huge too.... climbing was essential.

Ah... good times!:D

Sounds fun!

Is someone going to organise a forum Grand National event? I'm in! :thumbsup:

We could do it on-line, a bunch of us visiting various Website's Forum's, adding a line each and then leaving!!:)

hedge hopping!!! I think every group of kids in every city or town has its own Grand National..I used to love them hedges with really high confifers that you could jump into then let them bend slowly to the other side to give you the perfect soft landing. Then there was always the Beechers Brook where the other side was higher or lower than from where you jumped from...good old days!!
If I saw kids running thru my garden I'd encourage them...maybe even draft up some odds and place some bets..nothing wrong with a bit of harmless fun

I'd better not catch kids running through my garden. If I do I will be having stern words with their parents, or have a hose to hand to soak them with.

Originally posted by Skatiechik
I'd better not catch kids running through my garden. If I do I will be having stern words with their parents, or have a hose to hand to soak them with.
Spoilsport!!!!...

We used to call it "Cat Creeping" excellent winter sport with all those early dark nights, pretty much impossible in summer though!

Remember once lighting a roman candle firework in someone garden and seeing the look on the householders face peering from behind the curtains.... like what the **** is that !!!

it's a really f ing stupid thing.

It's common at my parents house, and the cnuts have distroyed the fences on both sides of the garden, along with others down the road.
One night my dad saw them coming, and legged it after them with a 4 foot axe handle, caught 2 of them, and scared the **** out of them. Called the police (and discreetly hid the axe handle). That was funny :D

Originally posted by Grim
it's a really f ing stupid thing.

It's common at my parents house, and the cnuts have distroyed the fences on both sides of the garden, along with others down the road.
One night my dad saw them coming, and legged it after them with a 4 foot axe handle, caught 2 of them, and scared the **** out of them. Called the police (and discreetly hid the axe handle). That was funny :D

Good, bet they think twice about trespassing on private property again now.

People spend a small fortune in their gardens and to have it broken down by ill mannered kids is just not on.

I've only done it twice as far as I can remember when I was about 14/15. Our road is quite long and has really long gardens that get shorter as you get nearer to the end of the road so the odds on being seen are more likely near the end as you're closer to the house. :D

We got spotted one night when we came up against a tall wooden fence. Our nominated 'climber' was trying to get over it while we all hid behind some kid's garden furniture, wendy house and whatever else was there. We'd gotten this far a few nights previous but given up and walked up the garden path, past the house and onto the road and back home along the street. God knows why we decided to try this fence cos there was no way we were all going to get over it without a) making a huge racket, and/or b) wrecking the fence in the process. Our climber was trying his best to get a foothold and making a proper arse of it when one of us happened to look up to window to see a silent face peering out at us. SH*T!!!

We hid back behind the furniture for a few seconds....then GO! GO! GO! RUN FOR IT!.....legged it in all directions. A couple went back the way we'd come, me and another one went through the hedge at the end of the garden onto the other side where we found ourselves in another garden and then worked our way onto the other street and I've no clue at all where the final two went but we all met back at my place and had a bit of a laugh at how stupid we'd been.

Memories eh. Personally I don't mind the idea of kids running through back gardens as long as they don't wreck things or nick things. It's alot better than some of the things kids get up to these days.

Originally posted by Grim
it's a really f ing stupid thing.

It's common at my parents house, and the cnuts have distroyed the fences on both sides of the garden, along with others down the road.
One night my dad saw them coming, and legged it after them with a 4 foot axe handle, caught 2 of them, and scared the **** out of them. Called the police (and discreetly hid the axe handle). That was funny :D

I think you have confused the age old traddition of hedge hopping (grand national),with todays traddition of wrecking your property.
The two are completely different,in my time it was known as mischief,now its a different kettle of fish.
Kids today dont do it for fun...they do it to destroy your property.

May I also point out,attacking children with a axe handle is not big or clever....remember in this day and age that these are the same children that will return and shoot you.

Originally posted by DaBouncer
We used to call it Hedge Hopping... and we too had 'The Grand National' nr wear we lived.

Although it was around the Herdings area.
The last house on the block only had one way out (without going the whole way back along the route), and that way out were large iron gates.

these gates made a right racket, and when you've got 4-8 kids all doing the National at once, at varying speeds... it was quite amusing. These gate were huge too.... climbing was essential.

Ah... good times!:D

Yup those were the days - the row of houses on Mawfa was the one we called the Grand National - always good to be the first to the end and start shouting 'There's somebody in your garden' at the top of your voice. Once had nearly 30 of us doing it together - carnage by the end :D

Originally posted by tango2
I think you have confused the age old traddition of hedge hopping (grand national),with todays traddition of wrecking your property.
The two are completely different,in my time it was known as mischief,now its a different kettle of fish.
Kids today dont do it for fun...they do it to destroy your property.

May I also point out,attacking children with a axe handle is not big or clever....remember in this day and age that these are the same children that will return and shoot you.

What? I don't see any difference between going over a hedge and distroying it as you make your way down gardens, and going over a fence doing the same thing? Are you saying in days gone by no damage was ever done, but nowadays people are less carefull when jumping over hedges/fences? you've totally lost me!

And who said anyone attacked anyone with an axe handle... it was just there for show (or hide)!

No Im saying,in days gone by it was just harmless fun,when I saw it done very little (if any)damage was done.
I remember locals looking on in ore as the specticle of loads of kids hurtled to the end of the row.

Yes harmless fun.

Nowadays it is different,yes damage is done (on purpose) yes abuse is thrown at you.

Yes having an axe handle for show is almost as bad as using,I would welcome you to have one to show towards my kids,and see what followed.If it was for show why hide it when the police turned up.........because its an offence thats why.

Also in days gone by,if damage was done to a fence or hedge,the chances of being identified where more than good.
This would result in a swift clip,and you were sent to put right what you had done.......why was this?....respect thats why.

In this day and age the youth have no respect for anything or anyone,this is why you dont see the activities that where to take place in days gone by.

agreed on the lack of respect thing, but i fail to see how you can go over a hedge or fence quickly without damaging it.

I don't think anybody would go chasing after someone with an axe handle if it was jsut a rare or one off occurrance, but when it's happening every week, you can probably see how we got ****** off.
What are you suggesting by "I would welcome you to have one to show towards my kids,and see what followed"?
If that's a physical threat, that's pretty ironic. If it's a threat of police intervention, i think you'll find that the police wouldn't be too bothered.

Originally posted by tango2
Also in days gone by,if damage was done to a fence or hedge,the chances of being identified where more than good.
This would result in a swift clip,and you were sent to put right what you had done.......why was this?....respect thats why.


Thats why you would be so careful as not to get caught especially if you were doing it on your own patch....
My parents never found out that I went cat crawling, if they did I would have got one hell of a hiding from my dad. I guess that was part of the excitement trying not to get caught. We never damaged any property, just did it to see how many gardens we could get along in one swoop.

Originally posted by Grim
agreed on the lack of respect thing, but i fail to see how you can go over a hedge or fence quickly without damaging it.

I don't think anybody would go chasing after someone with an axe handle if it was jsut a rare or one off occurrance, but when it's happening every week, you can probably see how we got ****** off.
What are you suggesting by "I would welcome you to have one to show towards my kids,and see what followed"?
If that's a physical threat, that's pretty ironic. If it's a threat of police intervention, i think you'll find that the police wouldn't be too bothered.

No its not a threat...just saying its not big or clever to chase kids with an axe handle.
Its not a threat of police intervention either,,however I think you will find they would be interested in someone who threatens a child with an axe handle.
If you were so sure they were not bothered.....why hide it?.

When I was young it was all part of growing up,I too never damaged a hedge or a fence,and my friends didnt either.

Originally posted by tango2
If you were so sure they were not bothered.....why hide it?.

Fair comment, but it's better to be safe ;) My point was not that it wouldn't be a crime, but any complains would be ignored. They did complain to plod that my dad was too rough, but plod didn't care.
I don't know if my dad did actually threaten them with it, it was more that he took it with him.

Out of interest, what would you have done?

So what did you mean by "I would welcome you to have one to show towards my kids,and see what followed"

Originally posted by Grim

So what did you mean by "I would welcome you to have one to show towards my kids,and see what followed"

I meant that I would not take too kindly to an adult threatening my child with an axe handle (weapon).

Yes I agree things like this can be annoying,but I tend not to go off the handle (excuse the pun) about it,I find a few strong words does the trick.

I know it can be a pain,but after all they are only kids

8)



(damn the message too short messages)

There's a great description of hedge hopping in the book Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle. It must be an international sport!

[

And who said anyone attacked anyone with an axe handle... it was just there for show (or hide)! [/B]

No, it was quite obviously there because the man is a bully.

How can you be a bully for protecting your own property?

I suppose you agreed with putting away the farmer that shot some kids for raiding his house?

Someone tresspasses on my property or damages anything I will use all reasonable means to escort them from the property and make them pay for any damage regardless of age.

You want to hear some of you....axe handles?? trespassing?? get real...the thread was about having a laugh when we were all young.....LIGHTEN UP!!

Originally posted by wibbles
You want to hear some of you....axe handles?? trespassing?? get real...the thread was about having a laugh when we were all young.....LIGHTEN UP!!
Here Here

Originally posted by wibbles
You want to hear some of you....axe handles?? trespassing?? get real...the thread was about having a laugh when we were all young.....LIGHTEN UP!!

I don't get how running through private property and wrecking a fence/hedge can be seen as fun? In my eyes it is illegal and vandalism

But the initial post was in reference to peoples childhood (i.e. mine and others) and whether or not you got involved in cat-crawling, hedge hopping, back hopping etc.

It wasn't the discussion of ethics or right and wrongs of doing it.
So yes lighten up. It was a discussion about peoples memories and the mischief they got up to in their younger days, not what we would do now!

If all you can do is complain, bugger off and do it some place else!

Nice one DaBouncer!:thumbsup:

Lets try and keep it lighthearted folks!
;)

Too right DaB - even if anything did get damaged it's a sodding bush it's not the end of the world.

Yeah but a bush can take years to mature and plump out into a nice shape complimenting a garden. I wouldn't be best pleased if someone wrecked it.

mmm...ITS A FECKING BUSH..unless you have gardens like Chatsworth House then likelyhood is its just a green, leafy privit like 90% of the ones in Sheffield and will grow/bend back.
Like its already been said and said and said again...see the post for what it is..if you wanna whine start a new thread.

I wasn't whining was merely making a fact.

Some people take real pride in their gardens, and wouldn't appreciate kids running through them.

You may have had fun back in your childhood, but I was merely pointing out to those people who still find it acceptable today for their own children that it isn't.

Would you please locate anywhere in this thread the people who said it is ok for their children to do this?

This thread started as a trip down memeory lane, and it has quickly turned into the ethics of kids doing it now days.

Like Wibbles said, start your own thread for any whinging you wish to make on the subject and we will contribute to it. Now please will you allow this thread to get back into the spirit for which it was created... that being a light hearted blast from the past!

Personally I'd expect my kid to do it, I'd think there was something wrong with him/her if they didn't. Kids mess about, kids get in trouble - it's part of growing up.

Originally posted by DaBouncer
Would you please locate anywhere in this thread the people who said it is ok for their children to do this?

Wibbles by calling me a spoilsport when I said that if I caught any kids running through my garden nowadays let alone on my property they would get the hosepipe.

Perhaps I have been bought up differently to other people, but when I was younger running through private property ( peoples gardens) would not even be comtemplated. I remember knocking on peoples doors quite frequently to ask for the ball back tho :) If we were to take the ball without asking first, would have been in big trouble.

I do remember playing hide and seek as a child around the estate tho, that was fun. :)

I'd rather see a bunch of kids back hopping over my garden than casing the place. If I caught some kids back hopping I may pretend to be angry but deep down I'd just remember how I used to do it when I was a kid.

I am getting so old :o :( :help:

This post made me think about what I had done as a child which I now deem as being vandalism and trespassing.

I have remembered something :D I used to go stealing apples, hop over someones wall to fetch them making sure they were out at the time :blush: :roll: