Memories

Weather was nice today so I had a mooch around the village.

My blip shows one of the entrances to the churchyard of St Mary's Church. The two entrances at the bottom of the churchyard are similar and used to have metal swinging gates. I lived nearby when I was a child and I would go through these 2 swing gates and cut through the churchyard on my way to school. At other times the gates would be a meeting place for local children - chatting and swinging on the gates.

There used to be a massive horse chestnut tree beside one of gates and at conker time the lads used to climb the tree and throw down the conkers. Many's the time I would be below the tree and my brother would be up in the branches picking the conkers and chucking them down for me to collect. Heath and safety - what's that? The conkers would either be steeped in vinegar for a few days or baked in the oven for a bit and then it was off to school with them threaded on to shoelaces. Aim was to whack your opponents conker into pieces whilst keeping yours intact. Good fun.

With living so close to the churchyard it wasn't frightening to me as a child - I would cut through the bottom part through the swing gates to get to school or go up towards the Church and out by the Rectory to get to the shops or the park. Even if it was dark I would still use these short cuts. Not sure I would do that now though. Its a shame the metal gates have been removed but I suppose its more convenient now.