The Flying Plank

[2ndhandrose 10]

No not a pop group.....but a ride in the local park. I think that they were made out of railway sleepers and were fastened to a metal frame. Along the plank were handles and you were supposed to sit astride them and move back and forwards. Not stand on the end and then fall underneath like I did on the Surrey Road playground at Darnall. I then tried to get back up and felt a 'rushing wind' past my right ear-hole as the plank carried on moving back and forward. Had it hit me then I wouldn't be sat here writing this. A deadly weapon...not a item of fun and frolics. Similarly the slide which seemed like a mile high with no railings to keep you from falling or the roundabout which spun at 60 m.p.h until everyone fell off onto the concrete. What fun was had by us children. It's a wonder any of us returned home in one piece. Any other memories of the playground???

[whissiewoo 10]

yes someone falling of the roundabout at speed in terry street rec, his leg went under it and gouged a big hole on inside of his thigh, and ambulance taking him away to hospital. and scraped knees when you came of the swings.

[chrishall 10]

In an earlier thread I related how I was alone on and working a flying plank up to it's limit when a girl ran across the end of it and the plank hit her in the side of her head and sent her flying, knocked her unconscious and seemed an age before the ambulance came, still haunts me over 50 years later. A deadly bit of kit, good riddance I say.

Edited June 19, 2011 by chrishall

[Nigel Womersle 10]

Whe I was ten, a friend and classmate, climbed up the chute of the slide in Ecclesfield Park. As she neared the top she lost her footing and fell off onto the concrete below. She only lived around 40 hours after that. What a terrible thing to happen. R.I.P Joy.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Nigel Womersle

[kerleytops 10]

Played in Longley playground, behind the childrens home, think its houses now, don't know how we survived, the things we used to do eg. standing up on swings and then jumping off, leaping off the moving roundabouts and then back on, the flying plank would never be allowed these days but most odd were the hours spent in the keepers hut, I seem to think he had some sort of stove in there, all very innocent. Happy days!

[speeder 10]

the "flying plank" at Glen Howe park, nr Wharncliffe Side had a cast iron horses head!! dread to think what damage that could have done.

[Guest]

I wonder if anyone remembers an accident in the playground of Crookes Valley Park in the mid to late 70s, involving one of those large, revolving barrels (rather like a giant hamster wheel)? I seem to recall such a piece of equipment being removed rapidly following an injury.

 

I could be misrembering, as I must have been about 7 at the time.

Edited June 25, 2011 by Guest

[Bald Eagle 12]

Abiding memory of my elder brother clinging on underneath the swagger plank as we called it at Woodhouse rec in the 50's. We took it up to the "bumps" just to pee him off. I was knocked unconscious by one of those rocking horse things in the park up Rivelin valley! Walking past too close and the head gave me a right wack on the noddle!

[fleetwood 10]

the "flying plank" at Glen Howe park, nr Wharncliffe Side had a cast iron horses head!! dread to think what damage that could have done.

 

You might be getting that wrong speeder, I remember the plank thing in a metal frame that swung outside it's own perimeter, very lethal. The thing with the 'horses head ' was like a large rocking horse with room for about six children, it didn't really rock, it was more like an horizontal movement parallel with the ground, also equally dangerous though.

[Bald Eagle 12]

The thing with the 'horses head ' was like a large rocking horse with room for about six children, it didn't really rock, it was more like an horizontal movement parallel with the ground, also equally dangerous though.

 

That's what I was on about up Rivelin Valley. I wonder if they're still there!