Another in the Janine Masters series of photos. You may have seen this one before – I know I have – but I’d never noticed a few of the interesting features!

Another surprise for me was that boys and girls freely mingled both inside and outside the classroom, unlike in Moortown, where the sexes were rigidly segregated in different classrooms and kept apart in the playground by a high wall. 

Picture the scene. My kitchen, here in leafy Warwickshire. Morning, between nine and ten o’clock. Sometime, mid to late nineteen eighties.

We have previously several times mentioned The Valley, the area of our town centred on Cecil Street.

On the far side of the street from Quay Street corner, at 2 Chapel Street lived the Campbells. They had two entrances to their home, one on the street and one down Granny Hughes’ entry. The photo below shows an early family photo. Rita, recently deceased, was the dear wife of Terry, our Editor’s walking companion.

The favourite game of all was Tig around the Block. It involved literally dozens of us, boys, and occasionally a few girls and was played not just Round the Block but as far afield as The Pighall Loanan, Derrybeg, Sandy’s Field, The Line, The Plaits, The Bricky Loanan and all areas within, especially other people’s back gardens. Played on this scale, there had to be a whole team ‘on it’. The more dedicated of us played the game with surprising intensity and military discipline.