So who built a den when a kid?

I was thinking today about kids playing out in the rain. Not a chance these days but in the late 50s and early 60s it was so different . Me and my pals would be in Rolleston road woods at Lane Top building dens with owt we could find and the feeling of sitting there with the rain bucketing it down around you was brilliant. The poor kids of today would have been stuck at home today playing x box or whatever. They will never know what they are missing.

I was a child in the eighties and we used to love building dens etc. We used to play on the 'piece' (Im guessing everyone just called it that as it was a piece of spare land) for hours, rain or shine.

Good times

Those corrugated iron sheets ffrom disused Anderson Shelters made good dens.

We used to build dens and treehouses. We'd bury some potatoes under a small bonfire and dig them up and have roast spuds to eat. I pity the mollycoddled kids of today.

We used to build dens and treehouses. We'd bury some potatoes under a small bonfire and dig them up and have roast spuds to eat. I pity the mollycoddled kids of today.

Yes, happy days. I wouldn't swap my childhood for a present day one, despite all the things they have that we didn't.

PS

Did anyone ever get a spud to cook all the way through :-)))))

I was brought up in Pitsmoor. In the late 60s & early 70s a lot of houses were empty waiting to be demolished we built dens in loads of them my mates & I spent hours playing in them happy times.

Those corrugated iron sheets ffrom disused Anderson Shelters made good dens.

Not only dens,

I can remember in winter using them as sledges on the slopes around where I lived on the Manor Estate carrying around six of us.

Brings back many happy memories from the fifties. Lived opposite a large wood and we spent much of our play time there. Our parents considered it perfectly safe back then - not sure they'd think the same today. Lads played football and climbed trees, there was a little stream where we scooped out the clay and made "pots" and painted them, and yes the dens. We also had small fires, mixed flour and water together and made "fritters". I'm sure they must have tasted horrible but we ate them. Today's kids are missing out on so much freedom, great shame.

I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s. We used to play on Hartley Brook fields, dam building, den building, cardboard slide in the Summer. There was an adventure playground just off Hartley Brook Avenue, we spent hours there. I really do pity kids nowadays who are just stuck in the house on their computer games, phones etc.

Also. we could be sure to find an abandoned car in a pub carpark to play in.

My favourite was making dens in haystacks. We used to rearrange the bales of hay to create tunnels leading from one area to another and leave gaps, like those in a pill box, to keep an eye out in case the farmer was coming. Apparently it was dangerous. But the only harm that ever came to me was getting a rash on my arms and legs (I wore short trousers) from being prickled by the hay.

I came from Cyclops st Grimesthorpe, i played on a small field and what we called

the tip lots of street kids would collect any old wood and build a hut.

We used old railway sleepers and corrugated sheets and tarpaulin a chap use

to bring us. If you were lucky like we were we had a small drop leaf table given us

and an old 2 seater settee what binmen should have took away.

Still got the scar on my finger i cut on the corrugated steel sheet.

Loverly days, kids can't make their own Enterainment like we did.

Happy days. Brian