0:00:03 > 0:00:11This is the story of the rise and fall of children's outdoor games in 20th century Britain.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15It's a journey into a secret world of adventure and imagination that
0:00:15 > 0:00:18blossomed in the nation's streets, back alleys and playgrounds.
0:00:18 > 0:00:24Playing on the streets was the defining feature of a working-class childhood.
0:00:24 > 0:00:30But the freedom they enjoyed meant they often got into trouble, none more so than the tribal
0:00:30 > 0:00:34gangs of boys who named themselves after the places where they lived.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37# We are the King's Cross boys
0:00:37 > 0:00:42# We know our manners We spend our tanners
0:00:42 > 0:00:46# We are respected wherever we go
0:00:46 > 0:00:50# I tiddly, I-tie, eat brown bread, Ever seen a donkey fall down dead?
0:00:50 > 0:00:54# We are the King's Cross boys. #
0:00:54 > 0:00:57CHILDREN CHANT
0:00:57 > 0:01:04# When I call your birthday, please jump in, January, February, March
0:01:04 > 0:01:08# April, May, June, July... #
0:01:08 > 0:01:15Children enjoyed a huge repertoire of games and songs, all still fondly remembered today.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20# I'm looking for my ogo pogo My funny little ogo pogo
0:01:20 > 0:01:25# His mother was an earwig His father was a whale
0:01:25 > 0:01:27# Let's put a little bit of salt On his tail. #
0:01:27 > 0:01:29Aw, soppy songs.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38This is the story of a lost world of outdoor children's play
0:01:38 > 0:01:43that survived into the 1950s before changing forever.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54100 years ago, folklorists began documenting the extraordinary
0:01:54 > 0:01:58kaleidoscope of children's games that flourished in the city streets.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01In working-class London, they collected more than
0:02:01 > 0:02:061,000 different children's games from street football to leapfrog.
0:02:06 > 0:02:11But what struck them most of all was their spirit of defiance, expressed most vividly in their songs.
0:02:11 > 0:02:19There was quite a big repertoire of street songs that all kids knew that they learnt from other kids.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23They weren't nursery rhymes. They weren't the sort of songs
0:02:23 > 0:02:28you learnt at school, although some of them were parodies of things you learnt at school.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32As a child in the 1920s, Charles Chilton sang these
0:02:32 > 0:02:36songs and later collected them as a folklorist and writer.
0:02:36 > 0:02:42He was one of that generation of schoolchildren who celebrated Empire Day every 24th May,
0:02:42 > 0:02:48for which they were taught patriotic hymns designed to instil national pride and duty.
0:02:48 > 0:02:56I want to tell you, children, that you are each one of you a member of the Empire
0:02:56 > 0:03:03and when you sing that you are proud of the empire, I want you to feel you are proud of yourselves.
0:03:03 > 0:03:09# Land of hope and glory... #
0:03:09 > 0:03:13But the stark contrast between the rhetoric of empire and the poverty
0:03:13 > 0:03:17of much working-class life was not lost on children like Charles.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20This is what they sang.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24# Land of soap and water
0:03:24 > 0:03:28# Mother, wash my feet
0:03:28 > 0:03:32# Father, pick my toe nails
0:03:32 > 0:03:35# Whilst I eat my meat. #
0:03:39 > 0:03:45We were supposed to be very proud that Britain had the largest empire in the world.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50Most of us, of course, had no soles to our shoes and some of us
0:03:50 > 0:03:54didn't have shirts to our backs but we were very proud of being British.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58However, there were some customs where
0:03:58 > 0:04:01poor children were truly grateful for the gifts they received.
0:04:01 > 0:04:07On highdays and holidays, there was often fun and games on the streets as children scrambled for food
0:04:07 > 0:04:11and money, ritually dispensed to them by the better-off.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16In the Norfolk village of Chedworth, children eagerly looked forward to the 14th February.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20St Valentine's Day was the best day of the year for Ed Mitchell.
0:04:20 > 0:04:27We congregated down the bottom of our road, and we'd go to where the posh people lived
0:04:27 > 0:04:29and we would sing,
0:04:29 > 0:04:34# Old mother Valentine Draw up your window blind
0:04:34 > 0:04:37# You be the giver I'll be the taker... #
0:04:37 > 0:04:39Then we would jazz it up,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42# Old mother Valentine Draw up your window blind
0:04:42 > 0:04:45# You be the giver I'll be the taker... #
0:04:45 > 0:04:50Quicker and quicker and quicker, Then they would heat up halfpennies on a shovel over a coal fire
0:04:50 > 0:04:55and throw them in the road and us kids would scramble for them cos they were red hot. As soon as you put
0:04:55 > 0:05:00your hands and fingers on them they burnt your fingers so you had to drop them, which caused a big laugh.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05Then we would go down the road to the shops where we would sing it, Old Mother Valentine.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09Then out of the shop would come old Alborn, the shop keeper, and he'd
0:05:09 > 0:05:11chuck us all the old sweets he had since Christmas.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15And we'd be scraping about on the floor for these and it was a very
0:05:15 > 0:05:22big day in our lives, more important than Christmas cos we were getting something for nothing, you see.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Another popular custom in the children's calendar was
0:05:25 > 0:05:32Bonfire Night on the 5th November, when almost every street ritually burned an effigy of Guy Fawkes.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37This fascination with bogeymen and folk devils ran deep
0:05:37 > 0:05:40and surfaced in children's games throughout the year.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45John Salinas grew up in Liverpool in the 1920s and '30s.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50There was one game we played, "Old witch, old witch, what are you looking for?"
0:05:50 > 0:05:55One of us would bend over like an old women and then the rest of us
0:05:55 > 0:06:00would group around whilst she hobbled along and we would say,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03Old witch, old witch, what are you looking for?
0:06:03 > 0:06:07And she would say "pins and needles".
0:06:07 > 0:06:11"Old witch, old witch, what are the pins and needles for?"
0:06:11 > 0:06:14"To sew buttons on clothes."
0:06:15 > 0:06:21Now, everybody knew what was coming next
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and the fear was anticipated.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27"Old witch, old witch, what are you looking for?"
0:06:27 > 0:06:30"Knives and forks."
0:06:30 > 0:06:33"Old witch, old witch, what are the knives and forks for?"
0:06:33 > 0:06:40And at this she would straighten up and fling her arms wide, "To eat little boys and girls like you!"
0:06:40 > 0:06:42By which time everybody had scattered.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49The street was a fairly safe place where children could act out
0:06:49 > 0:06:53their fears and fantasies, free from adult control.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Mothers and neighbours often kept a watchful eye on the young ones
0:06:57 > 0:07:00but it was the children who decided what they wanted to play.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05For girls, skipping was a perennial favourite and in London's East End
0:07:05 > 0:07:09girls like Joan Risley had a large repertoire of skipping games.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12That was one of our everyday games, you couldn't
0:07:12 > 0:07:18go out without a skipping rope or you would always try and find someone who had a skipping rope.
0:07:20 > 0:07:26Sometimes there was a crowd of us or sometimes we skipped on our own.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30And we used to sing a little song to it.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34# There's somebody under the bed I don't know who it is
0:07:34 > 0:07:38# I feel so shocking frightened I'll call Marjorie in
0:07:38 > 0:07:42# Marjorie lights the candle Marjorie lights the gas
0:07:42 > 0:07:46# Run out, run out There's somebody under the bed. #
0:07:49 > 0:07:54But children's play wasn't always as good natured as this.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Some boys and girls were routinely left out and picked on for being different.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03Any sign of weakness or inferiority might be cruelly seized upon.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Eileen Cook remembers how one boy's life was made a misery
0:08:07 > 0:08:10in the Lancashire mill town of Colne in the 1930s.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14One of the lads, he started wearing glasses
0:08:14 > 0:08:19and they were little tin rim things,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21not much bigger than a shilling.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25Well we were fascinated with them. It used to be
0:08:25 > 0:08:28who could smash his glasses, or let's try them on.
0:08:30 > 0:08:36We used to take them off him and twist, twist the thing that went round his ear and break them.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41His mother stopped him playing out with them in the end because she was having to go back to clinic for fresh
0:08:41 > 0:08:49glasses cos as soon as he came out we'd all try them on and twist and break his blooming glasses.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04The children played mostly with other children who lived in their street.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09This was their territory and there was a pecking order based on age and strength.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14Though any footballing prowess always helped boost a boy's popularity.
0:09:14 > 0:09:21Despite the fact that every game had its own rules, foul play meant it could soon all end in tears.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Boys quickly settled most disputes by fighting,
0:09:24 > 0:09:30but long running rivalries between gangs from neighbouring areas could flare up at any time.
0:09:30 > 0:09:36Children always had to be prepared for a surprise visit from their street fighting, poorer neighbours.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40We were pretty low down where we were,
0:09:40 > 0:09:47but there were children who didn't wear boots or shoes and walked around in bare feet.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50We used to call them Buckhoes.
0:09:50 > 0:09:57And if we saw a crowd of Buckhoes coming towards us we would take a quick side turning
0:09:57 > 0:09:59to get out of the way.
0:09:59 > 0:10:05But John's street had their tried and tested methods to fend off the intruders.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09One of our secret weapons, in the street there were two
0:10:09 > 0:10:15deaf and dumb boys and one of them, they didn't play with us much,
0:10:15 > 0:10:20but when we were attacked by another gang, threatened
0:10:20 > 0:10:25not attacked, attacked is a strong word, someone would say "Get the dummy!"
0:10:27 > 0:10:29Get the dummy, how cruel.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31But "get the dummy", and out would come
0:10:31 > 0:10:37the dummy and he was twice our size and he would make these awful noises
0:10:37 > 0:10:43and as soon as they saw the dummy and he made his noises and waved his arms they were away.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46You never were pretty, were ya?
0:10:46 > 0:10:47Come on then, here.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49You're hurting me.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52That don't matter. You never was pretty, was ya? Come here, you.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55What's the matter with you?
0:10:55 > 0:10:57- I don't want my face done. - You gotta have yours done.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00- What's the matter with you?- Every street had its own leader of the
0:11:00 > 0:11:07pack and although the adults tried to stop bullying and anti-social behaviour, it often flared up.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11Donald Bayley grew up in Birmingham in the '30s.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15No other kid was going to push me about.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17If I wanted something
0:11:17 > 0:11:22and there was no adult there to secure it for someone else, then I
0:11:22 > 0:11:28would take it, I would have it, even if it meant I had to fight for it.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31Then of course once you establish yourself as the one who will use
0:11:31 > 0:11:35his fists most of the other kids wouldn't even face up to you.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39In our street, in Copper Street, nobody ever
0:11:39 > 0:11:44came to me and really, really opposed me.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47I think you get a reputation.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Kids talk as much as anyone else and you don't mess with him type of thing.
0:11:53 > 0:12:00In the leafy suburbs, middle-class families enjoyed a much more private, genteel lifestyle.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02They wanted to protect their sons and daughters
0:12:02 > 0:12:06from the bad influence of rough children who played on the streets.
0:12:06 > 0:12:13Educational and improving home-based play was strongly encouraged by parents who had more time and money
0:12:13 > 0:12:15to spend on their children's personal development.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19For them the back garden was the best playground for their children,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22a place where they could safely let off steam.
0:12:22 > 0:12:30To play in the street was common and strictly out of bounds for grammar school boys like Warwick Taylor.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32In those days there were a lot of rules of play,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35but you weren't allowed to go around and play in the street,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37especially not on a Sunday.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39I think it was a sort of
0:12:39 > 0:12:41snobbish thing between neighbours.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45"My child doesn't go out and play in the street." "Neither does mine,"
0:12:45 > 0:12:48I mean it was silly really because there were two boys
0:12:48 > 0:12:54living next to me and we used to shout over the fence but we mustn't go outside to the front at all.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57The imagination of middle-class children was captured by the fast
0:12:57 > 0:13:03growing toy industry which created games to be bought by parents as birthday and Christmas presents.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07Most popular of all was the Hornby OO train set,
0:13:07 > 0:13:13the dream of a generation of schoolboys whose biggest fantasy was to run Britain's railways.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Each year, I would get something to add to this, some points,
0:13:17 > 0:13:22crossovers, more track, a railway station, a signal box,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25trucks, carriages
0:13:25 > 0:13:28and gradually and gradually it would build up.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32All this represented to me was a really live running railway,
0:13:32 > 0:13:37so I would have imaginary timetables and imaginary destinations.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42My station wasn't really a main line station, it was what we called a through station, on route somewhere.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47So I used to watch the clock and say right that will be the 9.30 going to Wigan or Liverpool.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54It was a fantasy world, it really was, and it was absolutely wonderful, I loved it.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01The toys bought for working-class children, mostly at Christmas, were much more modest.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05They were purchased on the street and often played with on the street too.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09But these toys didn't always bring the happiness that they promised.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12In an atmosphere of scarcity they could fuel bitter rivalries
0:14:12 > 0:14:16between siblings who didn't want the toy they'd been given.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24On Christmas Day 1938, there was only one present Donald Bayley
0:14:24 > 0:14:29really wanted from his mum and dad. A toy penknife.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42Geoff, who was four years older than me, was given this lovely penknife.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44So I wanted a penknife
0:14:44 > 0:14:47and they said, "There's your ball."
0:14:47 > 0:14:50And I said, "I don't want a ball, I want a penknife."
0:14:50 > 0:14:51"But you've got to have a ball."
0:14:51 > 0:14:56I said, "You can keep your bloody ball," and threw it back at them.
0:14:56 > 0:15:02And that's how I felt that I was not being treated the same as Geoff.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07Although I was four years younger, I couldn't see that there was any difference between me and Geoff.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14The present to die for was a new bike.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18They were rare in working- class neighbourhoods and if one was bought it was usually given
0:15:18 > 0:15:22to the eldest boy and would then be passed on down through the family.
0:15:22 > 0:15:27But this wasn't going to stop Eileen Cook from getting the birthday present of her dreams.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31I wanted a bike and it was coming up to my birthday
0:15:31 > 0:15:36and I moidered and moidered about suggesting about this bike, but my dad wouldn't buy it.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41So we were having a meal one day and me mother had put it on the table. And I asked, "Can I have a bike?"
0:15:41 > 0:15:46And me dad says, "Don't mention that bike again, you're not having one."
0:15:46 > 0:15:48I said, "Well, I won't eat another thing.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51"I'll starve to death till I get a bike."
0:15:51 > 0:15:56He said, "Right, leave the table, go in the living room, that's end of story."
0:15:56 > 0:16:01I thought I'll be dead by the time they finish dinner, this can't happen,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05he'll give way, but he didn't, no, no, he didn't.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Eileen then decided to take the matter into her own hands.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14She collected the bike she wanted from the owner of the local bike shop, a close friend of her father,
0:16:14 > 0:16:19on the grounds that he'd agreed to the sale and would settle up on Friday.
0:16:19 > 0:16:25I took the bike, rode round on it and all me friends we all rode all round on it.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29Then I said to me friend, "Oh, me dad said
0:16:29 > 0:16:36"you have a shed, where your dad keeps his bike, can I put ours in because we haven't got a shed?"
0:16:36 > 0:16:38And she said, "Yeah, yeah, all right."
0:16:38 > 0:16:43However, by Friday evening Eileen knew her game would be up.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48Me dad came home and he went ballistic but the man wouldn't take it back
0:16:48 > 0:16:53because we'd been playing out on it all week and he couldn't take it back, so me dad had to pay for it!
0:16:55 > 0:16:59Country children had few toys or presents, but they at least had
0:16:59 > 0:17:02the vast adventure playground that nature provided on their doorstep.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Birds nesting was popular with many schoolchildren
0:17:06 > 0:17:10but it inevitably brought them into conflict with authority.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Cos every boy in them days, out in the country had
0:17:13 > 0:17:21a collection of birds eggs in a box, and we used to go round birds' nests, thrushes, blackbirds, hedge sparrows,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25spinks, yellow hammers and all that sort of thing, you see.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29But we wouldn't take more than one egg out of a nest because the
0:17:29 > 0:17:33bird wouldn't come back and lay another one if we took the lot out.
0:17:33 > 0:17:39All us boys had caps in them days, peaked caps, and we use to get
0:17:39 > 0:17:46the eggs before they were blonde and put them behind our caps, you see, to carry them. They were safe there.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50But when, if we were caught by old Amos
0:17:50 > 0:17:54coming back from the common or from the river bank, who was
0:17:54 > 0:17:57the gamekeeper, he'd know we'd been bird nesting.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00And he'd say, "Hello, where you all been?"
0:18:00 > 0:18:03And we'd say, "We been for a walk down the common."
0:18:03 > 0:18:06"Oh, well, come here then."
0:18:06 > 0:18:12And he'd smack our caps on the top like this and if we had any birds eggs in them all the
0:18:12 > 0:18:18shell and yoke would run down our face and he'd say, "Right, go on, I know where you been now, don't I?"
0:18:27 > 0:18:32Also growing up close to the countryside, in hundreds of private boarding and public schools,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35were the children of well-to-do middle- and upper-class parents.
0:18:35 > 0:18:43Their schools, mostly built in Victorian and Edwardian times, were often set in a semi-rural idyll.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47Here they could learn and play in a structured environment far away from
0:18:47 > 0:18:53the temptations of the city and the corrupting influence of working-class children.
0:18:53 > 0:18:59But entering this closed world could be a shock for young boys leaving home for the first time,
0:18:59 > 0:19:02like Alec Gunn, who at the age of eight travelled
0:19:02 > 0:19:07to Oxford with his mother to begin his first term at the Dragon School.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12On the day I left for the Dragon School we went to Paddington, that was the train to Oxford.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14And my mother came with me,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17and we got to the school
0:19:17 > 0:19:22and we had tea with Mrs Lynam, who was the headmaster's wife.
0:19:22 > 0:19:28And then I was sort of handed over and my mother was near tears
0:19:28 > 0:19:33and I was near tears, and I had this little rubber duck which my mother gave me
0:19:33 > 0:19:37and I arrived clutching this in the dormitory on my first night there.
0:19:37 > 0:19:43And a kindly boy who was a year senior to me came up and said,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47"Put that way, you'll have an awful time if anyone sees you with that."
0:19:47 > 0:19:50So I did, it was very good advice.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52Alec was lucky.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55In an era when many public schools were obsessed with physical contact
0:19:55 > 0:20:03sports, he'd landed in a place with a much more enlightened attitude to healthy exercise and outdoor games.
0:20:03 > 0:20:11The ethos at the Dragon School, in sport was mainly fitness, it wasn't so much toughening one up
0:20:11 > 0:20:15to be a leader of empire or anything like that. For instance,
0:20:15 > 0:20:20we were offered a reward if we bathed in the Charwell every morning
0:20:20 > 0:20:21before breakfast,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23including Sundays.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28And you had to swim across the river and back every day of term.
0:20:29 > 0:20:35There was a thing of adventure about it and there was the competitive thing to think, you know,
0:20:35 > 0:20:37marking off the days,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40I only have a week to do till the end of term.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44And everyone was clapping and the headmaster came around and dished out half crowns.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Working-class children enjoyed outdoor swimming too,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54in the new lidos or in their local streams and rivers.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57With no schoolteachers in charge, and sometimes no costumes on,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01swimming for them involved much larking about.
0:21:01 > 0:21:07But the fun and games would often be brought to an abrupt end with the arrival of the bobby on his beat.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12Round by us we had to swim in the River Chet and we went in,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16we didn't have no clothes on, couldn't afford a costume,
0:21:16 > 0:21:18until you got about 14.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Then old PC Hall, the village slop, he used to come down there
0:21:21 > 0:21:25and hide in the nettles cos the nettles grew about 5ft high.
0:21:25 > 0:21:31And his job was to catch any boy over the age of about 13 or 14 swimming down there.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35And of course if you were over 14, he'd book you
0:21:35 > 0:21:41and you'd be up Larden town hall and get fined five bob for that, or your mother and father had to pay.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47If there was one thing children did that was guaranteed to antagonise
0:21:47 > 0:21:52those in authority over them, it was to take their clothes off in public.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57But to be caught exposing your private parts in the school playground was to break every rule
0:21:57 > 0:22:03in the book, as 12-year-old Bolton boy Harry Dibnah discovered to his cost in 1936.
0:22:04 > 0:22:11You always knew the teachers were watching you from the classroom windows above, always.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13I once got a hell of a hammering.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17There were six of us and we were measuring our penises
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and we didn't know the headmaster was watching us.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25When we got back to the classroom he said,
0:22:25 > 0:22:32"Dibnah out, Ball out, Carr out, Holding out."
0:22:32 > 0:22:36We were all looking round, "Wh-What's going on?"
0:22:36 > 0:22:38"Now, gentlemen,"
0:22:38 > 0:22:40to all the classroom,
0:22:40 > 0:22:47"these are the products of the English men, who will hold our empire together.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52"These are the men who are going to work and keep their families together,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55"and do you know what I found them doing?"
0:22:57 > 0:22:59"No, sir. No, sir."
0:22:59 > 0:23:01"Measuring their penises."
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Well, the classroom erupted.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11And now he said, "We'll see what kind of English men they are."
0:23:11 > 0:23:14So he went to his cupboard and we knew what was coming.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19Now he said, "Gentlemen, one at a time, put your hands up."
0:23:19 > 0:23:25And when he brought that cane down, man, you went down with that cane to the floor.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28When you got up you dared not whimper.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31There was a blue mark across each hand.
0:23:31 > 0:23:32SIREN SOUNDS
0:23:34 > 0:23:41In September 1939, the Second World War began and it turned children's lives upside down.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46With impending German air attacks the city streets where children had once played suddenly became
0:23:46 > 0:23:52THE most dangerous place to be and were emptied at the sound of every air raid siren.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57To begin with the authorities predicted that poison gas would be dropped.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01- INFORMATION FILM: - This hand rattle means gas.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Put on your gas masks.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07And keep it on.
0:24:07 > 0:24:1344 million gas masks were issued to protect the lives of every man, woman and child.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17One of the children who wore them was Odette Buchanan from Harrow.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23They were made of black rubber and you had to fix them over your face,
0:24:23 > 0:24:28and once they were on you got a piece of Perspex for the eyes to see out
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and then you got this funnel with the grid at the end of if it
0:24:31 > 0:24:33that you breathed through.
0:24:33 > 0:24:39And it fixed over the back of your head with a strap and...
0:24:39 > 0:24:44it stuck onto your face, and the smell was absolutely disguising.
0:24:44 > 0:24:50I still can't stand the smell of rubber, It was just totally revolting and the thing was we never used them.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55There were no gas attacks, and to begin with, no bombing raids either.
0:24:55 > 0:25:03The war was seen by some children as a new adventure where even the gas mask could inspire new street games.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07We discovered that they made brilliant weapons, so you know,
0:25:07 > 0:25:13I was one part of a gang and the other gang had their weapons as well and we used to charge.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18Our school was on a hill and we used to have to go downhill to get home,
0:25:18 > 0:25:22and we used to go hurtling down the hill swinging these gas masks over your shoulder
0:25:22 > 0:25:25and when you caught up with someone, whack!
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Official films were insistent
0:25:27 > 0:25:31that everyone should carry their gas masks at all times -
0:25:31 > 0:25:35a message that was taken seriously by children far and wide,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38especially by Lancashire girl Eileen Cook.
0:25:38 > 0:25:45We were all issued with a gas mask and they were in like a brown cardboard box with a string on
0:25:45 > 0:25:49and you never went through the door without your gas mask.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54And at one time we had like little luggage labels with name and address on your coat.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And because we knew there was going to be a bombing,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02we didn't know what it was going to be, but it was going to happen.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05We've got to be prepared for this, you see.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07Attacks from the air are swift...
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Everyone knew a gas mask was essential in an air raid.
0:26:10 > 0:26:17Be quick in getting your masks and putting them on, but keep cool and you will always be safe.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22So when Eileen lost hers whilst playing, she panicked.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25When I'd got home, I'd lost me gas mask,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29I had our Rita's but I hadn't got mine.
0:26:29 > 0:26:35Oh, my God. So me mother had to tramp back up right up to the fields
0:26:35 > 0:26:38and we looked all over for this gas mask.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Gone, lost. Oh, my God.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47So we had to go down the ARP station to be issued with another
0:26:47 > 0:26:49and they gave me a right telling off.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55I was absolutely terrified of the guard telling me off,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59but had somebody notified Hitler?
0:26:59 > 0:27:05That was my main worry, because if he knew I had lost my gas mask
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and knew where I lived, was he going to send these gas bombs
0:27:08 > 0:27:12that I had been training to put my gas mask on for?
0:27:12 > 0:27:19Oh, I were poorly. I felt sure somebody would of notified Hitler that I had lost me gas mask.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23If you have a child of school age and wish to have him evacuated,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26you should send him to school tomorrow, Friday,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30with hand luggage containing the child's gas mask,
0:27:30 > 0:27:36a change of underclothing, night clothes, shoes, spare stockings or socks,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39a toothbrush, a comb, a towel...
0:27:39 > 0:27:46At the outset of war, around two million children from the big towns and cities
0:27:46 > 0:27:53were evacuated in voluntary schemes to the safety of the countryside away from the predicted air attacks.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58Around half of all city children left on what seemed to be a great adventure.
0:27:58 > 0:28:04But many had never been away from home before and the upheaval was greater than any had imagined.
0:28:04 > 0:28:10It was a lottery whether a child found a good home or not and some were treated cruelly.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13However, for the lucky ones, this could be the beginning of a new life
0:28:13 > 0:28:16that extended their horizons forever.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Like Donald Bayley, the young bully from West Bromwich.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24We looked around the house and this house was different,
0:28:24 > 0:28:28this was what I would say now was a middle-class house,
0:28:28 > 0:28:35very quiet, very sombre, very peaceful house.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38And she turned out to be the most wonderful, wonderful person.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42We became "my boys".
0:28:42 > 0:28:46We were all "my boys", Donald and Philip.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Never called me Don, never called him Phil, Donald and Philip.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57The Blitz finally began in September 1940, bringing with it terror and heartbreak
0:28:57 > 0:29:01for the families who remained in London and big cities all over Britain.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06For almost nine months they were the targets for nightly bombing raids
0:29:06 > 0:29:09that would kill more than 60,000 civilians.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13Parents and their children took refuge in a variety of shelters.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17For David Bromage from Plymouth, it was an Anderson shelter.
0:29:17 > 0:29:23Things really started getting bad, the raids started about five o'clock in the evening.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27We had an Anderson shelter in our garden,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30so we stayed there and stayed there and I think,
0:29:30 > 0:29:36during when the night time came, suddenly there was one hellish bang.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40We couldn't go out and look but the house must of shifted
0:29:40 > 0:29:44from one side of the road to the other more or less,
0:29:44 > 0:29:49then a warden, an air-raid warden, come along and said, "I'm afraid you'll have to move.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51"You gotta go out because your house has gone.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55"You can see from the front of the house through to the ruddy back."
0:29:56 > 0:29:58David went to live with relatives nearby.
0:29:58 > 0:30:04The children in blitzed cities settled into a new daily routine
0:30:04 > 0:30:06that revolved around air-raid shelters.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10They continued to entertain themselves inside,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14but with the next bombing raid never far away it wasn't easy.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19You were in there for four hours, five hours at times because the raids were so big
0:30:19 > 0:30:22and people were just getting...
0:30:22 > 0:30:26well, us boys were trying out games of some sort.
0:30:26 > 0:30:32Or read a little book but you were to scared to really do very much anyway as children.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37However, even amongst the devastation of blitzed streets,
0:30:37 > 0:30:42the morning after a raid, the children could find adventure and excitement.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47One of the most popular boys' games was to search for shrapnel and bomb shells.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49When we came out of the shelter,
0:30:49 > 0:30:54us boys, out again on to the streets, onto the bomb sites.
0:30:56 > 0:31:03We'd go out and pick up bits of shell, bomb casings, everything like that and live incendiary bombs.
0:31:03 > 0:31:08Well, you could barter with them very well indeed, you know,
0:31:08 > 0:31:12nice big bomb with the fin on it and them German markings.
0:31:12 > 0:31:17We had so many at the time we took 'em and put them on the mantelpiece, one either side.
0:31:19 > 0:31:24The true horror and tragedy of war was never far away for the children of the Blitz.
0:31:24 > 0:31:30It was brought home to David in the aftermath of the worst attack on Plymouth.
0:31:30 > 0:31:36One particular bomb came down and killed five, I think it was five people.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40Completely gone outright, the following morning,
0:31:40 > 0:31:45we boys would scrabble around the bomb site looking for shrapnel and one thing and another
0:31:45 > 0:31:47and on this particular...
0:31:47 > 0:31:53I moved this stone and there was a finger...with a ring on it.
0:31:55 > 0:32:01It just stunned us for a minute, then it made me realise it was...
0:32:03 > 0:32:07..friends and brothers of friends of mine who had been killed.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Meanwhile, many of the city children who had been evacuated
0:32:13 > 0:32:18were beginning to discover the joys of the countryside.
0:32:18 > 0:32:19"Dear Mum and Dad,
0:32:19 > 0:32:21"Thank you so much for the postal order.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26"This morning I went on a horse to Westwood Farm.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28"The horse's name is Prince."
0:32:30 > 0:32:32We'd got a wood which was ours,
0:32:32 > 0:32:34you could go round the edges of the fields.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39There was a stream that ran through, you could drink out of this stream.
0:32:39 > 0:32:46The best we'd ever seen was the recreation ground, but there wasn't a tree on there.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49This had... You could climb the trees.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53In fact, one thing we used to do, cos there were young willow's there,
0:32:53 > 0:32:55we'd climb up as high as we could,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58until we couldn't climb any higher.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02And we'd hang on and the tree would bend slowly
0:33:02 > 0:33:05and lowered us to the ground.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07Sometimes, if we were lucky,
0:33:07 > 0:33:09it would spring back up again so we could do it again.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16The evacuees quickly learned the games played by generations of country children,
0:33:16 > 0:33:21all of them geared to the opportunities provided by each changing season
0:33:21 > 0:33:23and by nature's bounty.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25One game was to pretend to be a poacher,
0:33:25 > 0:33:31as John Hooper, evacuated from Cardiff to mid Wales, remembers.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35The salmon came up to spawn and we used to play poaching salmon.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42Cos the river ran right past the school and one of the boys
0:33:42 > 0:33:45would go up the stream about 50 yards or so
0:33:45 > 0:33:49and chuck in lumps of wood about that long, salmon-size lumps of wood.
0:33:50 > 0:33:56And then as these little logs came down we'd hook them out, you see, land a salmon.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59It was inevitably you'd get wet feet.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03Some of the bigger boys would occasionally be the water bailiffs
0:34:03 > 0:34:07and if they caught us they would naturally push us into the river.
0:34:07 > 0:34:13So we'd go in the afternoon to school, soaking wet feet, freezing cold - anyway, loved it.
0:34:13 > 0:34:18We sent our children out into the country for their safety.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22And we found we'd given them more than safety.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25We'd given them a new world.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30In 1945, the evacuees were enjoying their last summer in the countryside.
0:34:30 > 0:34:37By then, the experience had inspired the nation with a new vision of a better life for all its children.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40Donald Bayley had been changed forever.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45I think I was a different person when I came home after evacuation,
0:34:45 > 0:34:49the aggression had gone, the absolute aggression that I had as a child
0:34:49 > 0:34:52had totally dissipated.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57And I think I was a more friendly person.
0:34:58 > 0:35:03The environment in which we lived clearly has a difference,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07I mean there's no comparison between the green fields
0:35:07 > 0:35:11and the countryside to the back streets of West Bromwich.
0:35:12 > 0:35:19But the cities to which the evacuees returned had been deeply scarred by the war.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21There were social problems, one of which was an increase
0:35:21 > 0:35:28in troublesome behaviour amongst the children who'd remained behind in the blitzed cities.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31The disruption of family life took its toll.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36The soldiers who returned came home to cities that were often unrecognisable to those they'd left.
0:35:36 > 0:35:42It would take a long time to build the better future that they'd been fighting for.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46For their children, the disruption sometimes continued as countless families
0:35:46 > 0:35:50were forced to move around, looking for jobs and new homes.
0:35:50 > 0:35:55All too easily the child without a settled home and friends
0:35:55 > 0:35:59could end up an outsider, like Josie Pickering from Manchester.
0:35:59 > 0:36:05We moved around the country a lot and it always went to a place
0:36:05 > 0:36:08where I couldn't speak the accent,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12and so when you went to a new school
0:36:12 > 0:36:18the teacher would pick you out to read aloud, because you spoke differently.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22And the kids would all take the mickey then
0:36:22 > 0:36:25in the school playground, "You can't speak properly and all that."
0:36:25 > 0:36:32So I used to say me prayers at night, "Please God, help me to talk like the rest of the kids."
0:36:32 > 0:36:35So I was pronouncing the words like,
0:36:35 > 0:36:39SOUTHERN ACCENT: "Come", "fun", "don't".
0:36:39 > 0:36:44But really I was saying come, fun and don't.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48So then when I learnt to speak Southern,
0:36:48 > 0:36:54blow me down, we came back to Manchester and I spoke differently again
0:36:54 > 0:36:57but this time the kids thought I was posh.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10I used to make this imaginary game up, to me it was real, it wasn't imaginary then.
0:37:10 > 0:37:17And I would sit on the outside loo and I used to think, "I'm going to escape one day."
0:37:17 > 0:37:19And I really thought I could.
0:37:19 > 0:37:25And I used to pack a few of my favourite toys in this little toy suitcase
0:37:25 > 0:37:29and I'm really sad when I think of it now.
0:37:29 > 0:37:34And I had this green umbrella with this duck handle
0:37:34 > 0:37:38and this duck looked quite human,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40so I used to talk to it.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44I used to say, "One of these days, Quacks,"
0:37:44 > 0:37:51cos that were his name, "we're going to escape, we're going to go on a train to London."
0:37:51 > 0:37:56I'd wiggle the umbrella then so he was answering me,
0:37:56 > 0:38:01then I'd make this noise of a train going, "Choo ch choo choo."
0:38:03 > 0:38:09Then me mother use to shout in, "What you doing out there, you been out there for ages.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11"And you've got jobs to do in here."
0:38:13 > 0:38:15I had to say, "I'm coming now."
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Post-war Britain was in a sombre mood.
0:38:20 > 0:38:27Large swathes of many cities had been seriously damaged or destroyed by enemy bombing.
0:38:27 > 0:38:32With almost 400,000 deaths during the war there were few streets and families
0:38:32 > 0:38:34that did not suffer the loss of a loved one.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38All this helped shape children's lives and imaginations.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42When evacuee Marcia Fletcher returned to Manchester,
0:38:42 > 0:38:48one of the favourite games she played with her friends took place in the local cemetery.
0:38:48 > 0:38:54It was nice and quiet there, lots of wild flowers and we use to look at the statues really
0:38:54 > 0:38:57cos there were angels, and things like that.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01And we used to get sort of morbid and look for babies' graves
0:39:01 > 0:39:05of which there were very many in a Victorian cemetery,
0:39:05 > 0:39:07often four or five on the one grave.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10Then a baby and a mum or a mum and the baby
0:39:10 > 0:39:14and we found this very sad, we used to enjoy the misery of it, you know.
0:39:15 > 0:39:21We use to look for graves where you know there was a lot of babies buried, and we'd sort of adopt it.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26Or a grave that was abandoned that obviously no-one had visited for many many years.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30And we'd adopt them and have them like our own little private garden
0:39:30 > 0:39:32and we'd put flowers on a jam jar.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35There was always jam jars where you got water for the flowers
0:39:35 > 0:39:40and we might pick a few flowers that had been discarded but that were still quite fresh.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45And some wild flowers we put in and we'd look after these graves.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48We played in the graveyard but we did respect it.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50We didn't walk on graves.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52We always made sure we didn't walk on graves.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58With the war over, the police could now give their full attention
0:39:58 > 0:40:03to law and order on the streets and to catch any gangs of children who dared to defy them.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Much street play resumed where it had left off before the war,
0:40:07 > 0:40:09and if there were minor misdemeanours
0:40:09 > 0:40:13they were usually dealt with on the spot by the bobby on the beat.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18A sharp rebuke, a clip round the ear or a visit to the child's home usually sufficed.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25Maurice McGinnes and his friends from Plymouth were known to the local police.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29They loved scrumping apples from the orchards on the outskirts.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35You couldn't get on the wall because they used to put glass,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38cement glass on top of the wall,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40but then we'd get a sack,
0:40:40 > 0:40:45put that on top of the glass and climb the wall, put our hands on top, and get the apples.
0:40:45 > 0:40:51There was about three of us, course we were filling all your pullover up and all this.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55Course you'd get down and you're walking out like this
0:40:55 > 0:41:01and the policemen up there - and they were policemen, I mean six footers and big blokes.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03"Come here!" they'd shout.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08He's not miles away but course you'd stand still and all these apples.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Down he'd come and you had to put all these apples down
0:41:11 > 0:41:17in front of him on the floor and he'd say, "What's your name?" You told him your name, where you lived.
0:41:17 > 0:41:23No lies, you told him and he'd turn around and say, "Right, I'll be around to see your father."
0:41:23 > 0:41:29The policeman was a respected authority figure and if children got into trouble,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32their parents knew they had to be seen to uphold the law.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35Dad would open the front door.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39"Mr McGinnes?" "Yes, Constable, what is it?"
0:41:39 > 0:41:43"Your son, Maurice, was scrumpying."
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Come on in here, you! I don't know what I'm going to do with them.
0:41:46 > 0:41:47Don't you let me catch you again.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50This policeman's going to lock you up.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54In front of the policeman, Father would say, "Right, boy, upstairs, no tea,"
0:41:54 > 0:41:58and the policeman would say, "Right oh, Mr McGinnes."
0:41:58 > 0:42:02And I'd go upstairs, police would be gone, and father would say,
0:42:02 > 0:42:06"Maurice come down and finish your tea, boy." And that was it.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14In the early 1950s, Britain was still struggling to recover from the war
0:42:14 > 0:42:16and rationing was still in force.
0:42:16 > 0:42:22The spirit of make-do and mend was embraced by children who made their own toy swords and bows and arrows.
0:42:22 > 0:42:28The recent victory over Germany boosted the popularity of every kind of war game
0:42:28 > 0:42:33and children re-lived glorious battles from World War Two in their imagination.
0:42:33 > 0:42:38Even greater flights of fantasy could be inspired by discarded objects from the Blitz,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42as South London girl Jo Roffey discovered.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46We used blackout curtains as a magic carpet.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48Oh, and I loved it,
0:42:48 > 0:42:52and my brother, he used to make us dress up so we looked the part
0:42:52 > 0:42:55cos he said, "You can't go to Timbuktu looking any old how.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58"You don't know who you might bump in to."
0:42:58 > 0:43:00He used to put my dad's waistcoat on and a tin helmet
0:43:00 > 0:43:05and we used to get on this magic carpet and go all over the place.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11In austerity Britain any child's toy was a luxury
0:43:11 > 0:43:13and there was no bigger birthday treat
0:43:13 > 0:43:17for a working class girl or boy than a pair of roller skates.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21I wanted these roller-skates and they were 15 bob,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25old money, that's quite a bit of money,
0:43:25 > 0:43:2815 shillings, you could do a lot with 15 shillings in them days.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32But my mum knew I really, really wanted these roller skates
0:43:32 > 0:43:37and I woke up on me birthday and there they was in brown paper, wrapped up in brown paper.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42Well I couldn't put them on my feet quick enough, I put them on me feet and I never had them off.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47Everywhere I went. My mum would say, like, "Go down the bakers and get a loaf of bread."
0:43:47 > 0:43:52Vooom, I used to whiz into the shop. "Oh, careful," the women used to say, "coming in here on them."
0:43:52 > 0:43:55I said, "Well, I'm not going to be long, I only want a loaf."
0:43:55 > 0:43:58But I wouldn't take them off.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Me mum use to say, "Be careful how you cross the road on them."
0:44:01 > 0:44:06Social class continued to define play in '50s Britain.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09And there was to be very little social mixing.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12# If you go down in the woods today
0:44:12 > 0:44:14# You'd better not go alone... #
0:44:14 > 0:44:19Middle- and upper-class children grew up in a closed, chaperoned world
0:44:19 > 0:44:23where the back garden often marked the boundary of unsupervised play.
0:44:23 > 0:44:29Friends were vetted, and in well-to-do families all activities were supervised by nanny.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34It could be frustrating for more adventurous children like Stella Sykes.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38The only children we really knew, were children whose parents
0:44:38 > 0:44:42were friends of our parents and we would be taken there
0:44:42 > 0:44:44and our nannies would usually be friends.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47Because everybody I grew up with had nannies,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50all called by the name of the family they worked for,
0:44:50 > 0:44:52of course, never by their own name.
0:44:52 > 0:44:58And we would go and have tea with, I don't know,
0:44:58 > 0:45:00John and Jane, with nanny,
0:45:00 > 0:45:07and there nanny would make an arrangement for them to come back and have tea with us.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11We did used to escape. We were quite good at escaping the nannies.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18The one thing we really wanted to do, loved more than anything,
0:45:18 > 0:45:22was to go down to Tenterden and play on "The Rec" - the recreation ground.
0:45:22 > 0:45:23Which was forbidden with nanny.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Nanny, being the most appalling snob,
0:45:26 > 0:45:30we weren't to go there because the common children would be playing there.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34We weren't suppose to mix with rough children, not her little charges.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38But, of course, the only thing we wanted to do was go down there!
0:45:38 > 0:45:42And for some extraordinary reason, we were allowed to drink Lucozade,
0:45:42 > 0:45:48but Tizer was forbidden, because that was common, according to nanny!
0:45:48 > 0:45:54So the only thing we ever wanted to do was to drink Tizer and meet these rough children, exciting children.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57You knew you was late when I shouted you this morning.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59I overslept a bit meself.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04Now look, it's a quarter to eight by the right time - that clock's not fast this morning, you know.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07Most working-class parents with larger families
0:46:07 > 0:46:12simply wanted to get their children out from under their feet so the day's work could be done.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17Even in the bomb-damaged cities, there were still enough parks and council playgrounds
0:46:17 > 0:46:20within walking distance to keep children occupied all day.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24One of them was Rene Ranahan from Bristol.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29You went out in the morning and you didn't come back till tea time.
0:46:29 > 0:46:30Your mother used to say,
0:46:30 > 0:46:33"I don't want to see you till tea time, out! Go on!"
0:46:33 > 0:46:36And off we used to go, in all winds and weathers,
0:46:36 > 0:46:39to the park with our little fishing net,
0:46:39 > 0:46:42with our little jam jar, do the fishing, you know.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45Put the little tiddlers in the jar.
0:46:45 > 0:46:51And then we used to go off then, we used to find the swings and the roundabout.
0:46:51 > 0:46:57If you were on the swings, if you could go over the bars of the swings, you were brave.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59And I never, I never ever.
0:46:59 > 0:47:05But some of the girls that were ever so brave, they used to let the boys push them,
0:47:05 > 0:47:12and push them up so high that the swings literally went over the top of the bars of the swings.
0:47:12 > 0:47:17Oh, my heart used to come up in me mouth with fright, I'd say, "Oh, I could never do that!
0:47:17 > 0:47:20"Don't ask me to do that, I could never do that."
0:47:22 > 0:47:29In their search for adventure, gangs of boys discovered new areas to play in.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32Daring each other to take risks to prove themselves.
0:47:32 > 0:47:37Occasionally, accidents did happen and tests of courage ended in tears.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40But the abiding memory is of the freedom and excitement
0:47:40 > 0:47:44of growing up and learning limits, away from adult control.
0:47:46 > 0:47:51Robert Morris grew up in a village near Leicester.
0:47:51 > 0:47:58We had a group of trees in the field below the street where I lived and they were known as The Climbers.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01And it was a range of trees,
0:48:01 > 0:48:07so the art was you'd climb a tree, then you'd progress
0:48:07 > 0:48:11across the canopy, as it would now be called, and get down on the far one.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15If you fell off in between, you went back and started again.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19One of the boys said, "I bet you daren't get on that branch
0:48:19 > 0:48:21"and do like they do in the circus,
0:48:21 > 0:48:29"where you hoop your legs over and hang upside down off the branch."
0:48:29 > 0:48:33And I distinctly remember saying, "No, no, I don't think so,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35"because if I fall, I'll probably land on my head."
0:48:35 > 0:48:39And they said, "You coward, you cowardy-custard, you daren't do it!"
0:48:39 > 0:48:45So bravado kicked in, and I picked the branch,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49got into position, then realised it hurts like hell at the back of your...
0:48:49 > 0:48:52cos you're on a knobbly wooden branch.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56And I must have tried to shift position and down I came.
0:48:56 > 0:49:02But as luck had it, in the process of falling, I did the complete turn and landed on my feet.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05SINGING
0:49:05 > 0:49:11Well-to-do girls were carefully protected from any contact with common children in the street.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14But when they were sent away to boarding school,
0:49:14 > 0:49:19they discovered that behind its respectable image, lay a dormitory sub-culture every bit as tough.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23One of those initiated was Stella Sykes.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26When I first went to my boarding school, I took Teddy with me
0:49:26 > 0:49:32because he had been my constant companion, and he was, after all, chief of the toys at the nursery.
0:49:32 > 0:49:37And when we had the dolls' tea party, Teddy was always the host.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44One of the girls snatched him and they threw him around the dormitory
0:49:44 > 0:49:47and I was backwards and forwards trying to grab him.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50And one of them got him with her nail scissors, she cut his nose off
0:49:50 > 0:49:56which was really, really upsetting and actually, I remember another thing too.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58They stabbed him, they cut his tummy open
0:49:58 > 0:50:01to see if I'd got anything hidden inside him, which I hadn't.
0:50:04 > 0:50:10I did cry. I remember sobbing my heart out about Teddy, but there wasn't anything I could do.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15They were bigger, they were older, they knew what was going on. I didn't. So I probably...
0:50:15 > 0:50:19I supposed I just had to be as stoic as I could,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22but I don't think it was very stoic.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28I mean, at eight, one isn't really very well equipped to deal with what seemed to me like a mob.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31It was probably only three or four girls, but it seemed like a big mob!
0:50:31 > 0:50:37The cinema provided a welcome escape from the harsh realities of life in early '50s Britain.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41This was the golden age of Saturday-morning matinee shows
0:50:41 > 0:50:46and cinema clubs, with three quarters of Britain's children attending weekly.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48Good morning, kids. Welcome to another matinee...
0:50:48 > 0:50:53The local cinema was a great meeting place for boys and girls from all over the neighbourhood
0:50:53 > 0:50:58and there were plenty of opportunities for wheeling and dealing before the lights went down.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02..the great collie that you saw in the film A Mystery in the Mine. Here they come...
0:51:04 > 0:51:07This boy said to me,
0:51:07 > 0:51:11"Have you got any money?" So I said, "I've got a penny, why?"
0:51:11 > 0:51:13He said, "Do you want to buy something?"
0:51:13 > 0:51:15So I said, "What is it?"
0:51:15 > 0:51:18He said, "Put your hand in my pocket".
0:51:20 > 0:51:26So me brother was sat next to me on the other side and I said to him, "What shall I do?"
0:51:26 > 0:51:29He said, "Well, have a look what he's got to sell!"
0:51:29 > 0:51:37So I put me hand in his pocket and it was a white mouse, so I bought it off him for a penny.
0:51:38 > 0:51:44The main attraction was usually a cowboy film, hugely popular, especially with the boys.
0:51:44 > 0:51:51The ritual battle between good and evil played out by their fantasy heroes never failed to please.
0:52:00 > 0:52:06It was a safe place where every boy and girl could let go and create pandemonium in the darkness,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09often driving cinema managers to distraction.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16One of the imaginary cowboys was Robert Morris.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20We'd got a very strict manager and he wouldn't have any nonsense.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24And if the kids were bouncing up and down too much, he'd come in and say,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27"Any more of this and the film stops and you're out".
0:52:27 > 0:52:30And you'd think, "Like hell we are! We've paid thruppence."
0:52:30 > 0:52:36So you'd sit like little choir boys through the rest of the film and then explode when you got out!
0:52:36 > 0:52:38But you were restless.
0:52:42 > 0:52:49Because you'd seen these cowboys, every kid that came out of that cinema was on horseback.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51And away you went...
0:52:51 > 0:52:53SLAPPING ..all the way down home.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Imaginary reins, "Whoa!" Rearing up if a car, which was rarity, came.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01"Whoa, BOY!" and let the car go on across the road.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07This rough and tumble fantasy world of Cowboys and Indians was mostly a boy thing.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11Any girls who wanted to join in had to bargain hard to make sure
0:53:11 > 0:53:15they didn't end up with the less glamorous roles the boys didn't want to play.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19But being a baddie could have its advantages.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22I said, "I bags to be a cowboy
0:53:22 > 0:53:24"or the Indian chief."
0:53:24 > 0:53:27So they said, "Well, you was the Indian chief last week."
0:53:27 > 0:53:31So I'd have to take turns. They were all lads that I played with.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35And then when I was the cowboy,
0:53:35 > 0:53:39I was the one that rode into town, the baddy
0:53:39 > 0:53:43with me two guns and I was shooting everybody.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46All these lads had to die then, they would all fall,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50"Aah", on the floor, playing the part, pretending to be dead.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52And we had really good times.
0:53:54 > 0:54:00Good times for middle-class girls also often involved riding, but on a real horse or pony.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03In the early '50s, pony clubs all over Britain blossomed
0:54:03 > 0:54:08as parents indulged their daughters' love affair with their very own pony.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12The girls entered a fantasy world, encouraged by countless adventure books,
0:54:12 > 0:54:17in which they imagined themselves and their ponies to be brave heroines saving the day.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19They were absolutely magical ponies.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24My second pony, I was told she'd been a circus pony.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28Because if you asked her her age, she was probably about 15 at this point,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30she would pat the ground four times with her paw.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33And I was utterly convinced she'd been trained in the circus!
0:54:33 > 0:54:38But I'm sure this was just a figment of my imagination.
0:54:38 > 0:54:44But I loved the idea, this circus pony, and we were going to travel the world together, you know.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48It was the way we went off into our imagination.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53And living of course as we did, with plenty of land, I'd go off on my pony and...
0:54:53 > 0:54:59I was always going to be rescuing people from burning buildings, or rescuing people trapped somewhere.
0:54:59 > 0:55:05With my plucky pony, we'd be pulling the log off, you know, to rescue someone's trapped leg or something.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08# There was a lovely princess... #
0:55:08 > 0:55:13Unsupervised outdoor play flourished everywhere in the 1950s.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17Whatever social class they came from, the most popular girls' games
0:55:17 > 0:55:21conjured up a fairy tale world of handsome princes and wicked witches.
0:55:21 > 0:55:27And they were usually very inclusive, with each girl taking a turn.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31"A wicked fairy cast a spell, cast a spell, cast a spell!
0:55:31 > 0:55:35"A wicked fairy cast a spell, long, long ago!
0:55:35 > 0:55:37"The princess slept for a hundred years..."
0:55:37 > 0:55:40# She fell asleep for a hundred years
0:55:40 > 0:55:44# A hundred years, a hundred years... #
0:55:44 > 0:55:46It was one of those games where we all did it.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Everybody was the princess and everybody was the wicked fairy.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53And everybody with the swords and briers and everyone was the prince.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55So you were all...
0:55:55 > 0:55:58we quite liked that, because we were all the same, you know.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Because sometimes in games where you were picked out,
0:56:01 > 0:56:03there are often children who aren't picked out, you know.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07And you could say, "Dip, dip, dip, my blue ship, sailing on the..."
0:56:07 > 0:56:13And if you know someone's coming up who you don't like, you could say, "wa-ter" instead of "water".
0:56:13 > 0:56:15CHILDREN CHANT A RHYME
0:56:23 > 0:56:30This was a unique children's tradition, with strong democratic instincts shared by the boys too.
0:56:32 > 0:56:33You definitely had phases.
0:56:33 > 0:56:39If the majority said, "We're off this game, we're on the other," then that's what you went to.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42If you didn't, you just didn't get a game, you weren't invited.
0:56:42 > 0:56:47So you went with the majority and once the decision was made, "We're on to ciggies."
0:56:47 > 0:56:50Or "Johnny on the Mop Stick, ye-es!"
0:56:50 > 0:56:51And away you go.
0:56:56 > 0:57:02To the children of the early '50s, it seemed as if these games would last forever.
0:57:03 > 0:57:08Patterns of children's outdoor play had survived the disruption of war
0:57:08 > 0:57:11and had changed little since the first decades of the century.
0:57:12 > 0:57:18"On the mountain lived a lady, who she is we do not know.
0:57:18 > 0:57:24"All she wants is gold and silver, all she wants is a nice young man."
0:57:24 > 0:57:30And then they would skip out of the rope and the next one would skip in and then the song would start again.
0:57:30 > 0:57:38# ..Who she is I cannot tell All she wants is gold and silver... #
0:57:38 > 0:57:42"Eachy peachy pear plum, out goes Tom Thumb."
0:57:42 > 0:57:45Then you go for through it again, "Eachy peachy pear plum", so it's
0:57:45 > 0:57:50one up, one at the wall, or you can do one up one over, or one under your leg.
0:57:50 > 0:57:55But of course, soon as you dropped the ball, if you dropped the ball, you were out. You gotta start again.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58CHILDREN CHANT A RHYME
0:58:01 > 0:58:05But from the mid-'50s onwards, children's play would be transformed
0:58:05 > 0:58:07by a revolution in the British way of life,
0:58:07 > 0:58:13which brought greater affluence, mass car ownership and modern housing estates.
0:58:13 > 0:58:19Each new generation had more of everything - except the freedom to play outdoors.
0:58:21 > 0:58:27Could children's creative instincts survive and flourish in the modern world?
0:58:27 > 0:58:33This is the question behind the continuing story of children's play in Britain.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:53 > 0:58:56E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk