Street games

This is Compton street about 1950 ish. At the top right is the Compton Arms which was hit by a stray bomb in WW11 Next to it is the waste ground which had been cleared after the building had burnt down. It was on this waste ground that I broke my wrist in gang fight. I never missed school as it was my left wrist and I could still use my right hand to write.

Demolition all around in Everton in the 1960s, but we still played out with joy on our faces

Memorable days riding our three-wheeler bikes

Four boys on a steering cart? No problem.

You had to make your own fun in the old streets. These girls are having great fun, regardless of the old bomb site setting, while the lads try to tip over a battered old car.

Three in a boat

Who is for the high jump?

We all had our own little gang.

You are never too old for a game of hopscotch

Various park amusements, including the Witch’s Hat!

Dip, dip, dip; my blue ship, sailing on the water, like a cup and saucer; O.U.T. spells out, with a jolly good smack across your face, just like THAT! This is how we picked sides for games in the 1950s.

A typical 1950s May Procession, beautifully colourised, with the May Queen at the front. This was uploaded on the Netherfield Road & Surrounding Area Facebook platform.

Long before health & safety gripped the nation, these inner city kids were taking their lives into their own hands as teeny stun boys and girls, leaping from high windows onto an old mattress. It's frightening looking at it now and clearly not to be recommended under any circumstances.

Dolly days in Northcote Street.

Dressing up was all part of growing up. Of course, many little girls liked to imitate the mums they idolised as highlighted here, tottering on over sized high heels and showing off a familiar shopping bag. Anyone for a trip down Greaty's golden shopping mile?

Kids swapping comics was a common pastime on the old streets.

Waste ground and an old car . . . what joy!

Fun on the oller . . . with a pick axe!

Another marbleous day for our inner city national game! Ollies, with a subtle colour tint from JImmy Johnson who uploaded this to the Heyworth Street & Distric Facebook platform.

The definitive street game, colourised and uploaded to the Heyworth Street & SA Facebook platform by Jimmy Johnson.

Looking across what was once Opie, Beatrice and Arkwright Streets below Netherfield Road North, kids improvise on an oller/debris area for a game of cricket. Loose bricks and rubble didn't worry us in those days. These bomb site and demolition areas were out instinctive playgrounds.

Tossing up to a wall was a common and easy street game. The girls would tuck their skirts into their knickers.

Kids at play in the Low Hill area, running from Hall Lane to Mount Vernon

Anyone for a calming game of 'Ring-A-Ring-Of-Roses'?Love the women heading home with a pram full of washing as they pass through one of the old Everton courts off Prince Edwin Street.

The thought of kids firing catapults in a street busy scenario would fill us with dread these days, but most boys had a catapult at one stage or another in the 1950s with 'ammunition' in the shape of small stones all over the many bomb sites in the Everton area. Clearly, these three boys had set up a target for practice.

Hey mam, look what we just swapped for a steering cart! An interesting day at Sir Thomas White Gardens

Dads at work. I'm sure he won't mind us playing with his car!

The classic steering cart picture from the top of the ridge. Let's call it the Everton Grand Prix, a challenge you took into your own hands because of the steepness of the terrain.

Another classic picture of one of our favourite street games, ollies or marbles. A circle has been chalked, in this instance on the tarmac, and two boys try to knock out the ollies from their positions a few feet away. Those you knocked out of the circle (or hole on a debris or oller) you kept. I loved seeing the old cobblestones peeping through where the street surface has become worn.

When you didn't have a park swing, there was always the door option.

We didn't need computers, but lived in our own fantasy world. In this instance, another day on the prairy playing Cowboys and Indians. Can I be my hero Roy Rogers, please?

Okay, no kids out playing out here yet, but the arrival of the local ragman with his horse and cart would have soon be causing a stampede to see who could swop their dad's best coat for a plastic monkey on a stick. Ragmen were the Pied Pipers of Everton. My grandma Emily Rogerrs from Copeland Street nearly had a fit when one of her lads, possibly my father Harry, gave my granddad's old Army great coat to a ragman for a balloon on a stick. Grandma toured the streets off Heyworth Street before she finally recovered the coat. Possibly this ragman was having a collection day off to deliver blocks of wood for the fire or vegetables. Certainly, he looks like he has a customer waiting.

It didn't take much to put a smile on our faces out in the street, but it looks like someone stole the pram wheels for their new steering cart. Come on, own up. Who did it!

Who needs a computer and a state of the art mobile phone? Certainly not these kids in the Sixties who made their own fun, having a great time clambering over the backyard bins.

Anything you can do . . . the girls prove that climbing walls is not just for the boys.

The dolly's outing, with one boy sneaking in on the end of the picture with his bike.

When we were really tired after a full day on the street, reading our comics was a decent option.

Leap frog at its base level. I once joined an Army team trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records by leap frogging up Snowdon. We actually achieved our aim. I was just a guest in the team, having never been in the Army!

The skilful two balls against the wall was a hugely popular game for girls.

After all those street games and playing on a dirty oller or debris, it was straight into the old tin bath. Happy days!

What I would call a proper Guy Fawkes 'bommmie'. These were common across the inner city areas. Imagine one of these going up in your street or road now and what would Elf & Safety say?

Do you wanna be in my gang? Girls on a typical Everton debris or oller, the work of German WW2 bombs and the 1960s Council clearances I suspect.

Collecting wood for the 5th November Guy Fawkes night was a serious business across the Everton streets. These boys look like they have collected a bit of treasure from a nearby bombed house. Looks like Netherfield Road.

When every street had a climbing frame!

Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble on the Witches Hat!

All our big local parks had a giant slide

All aboard for our street steering cart grand prix!

All aboard the park multi swing as discussed in Heyworth St & SA Facebook page.

Round and round we used to go until we were dizzy!

The chain swing could be lethal. If you let go of your chain handle it could crash into the person next to you.

Footy with a chalked goal on a wall.

The classic game of ollies was played on streets and debris/oller areas all over Everton. This image was uploaded to the Netherfield Road & Surrounding Area Facebook platform by Peter Brown. Ollies (marbles) had different names. A steely was effectively a silver ball bearing of varying sizes. A parrot was a brightly coloured 'olly'. A bollywasher was a large glass olly. Getting confused? The kids of Everton played this game for hours and you either ended up with a giant marbles collection or hardly any at all, depending on your skill level.

Another great memory below, Joan.

Learning to skip I thought was hard. French/ Chinese Skipping took months to learn.Many grazed knees and bumps on your head, but great fun.

Brilliant picture below, Joan, of a girl with her top and whip. It took much more skill thank it looks.Thank you.

Top & Whip, we girls used to spend hours, searching for foil sweet wraps in the street. The colours were magic, as the top spun around. Happy childhood memories and hours of fun.

If we were not jumping from back yard wall to backyard wall we were playing daredevils in the local park. These girls are swinging high standing on the seat, clearly no health and safety in those golden days.

A classic image - it could be any of our old streets - with two young girls having great fun, probably while the lads were round the corner playing 'footy'. Lampposts were clearly the most important piece of street equipment we had - and not just for lighting up our extended evening play time. Swinging on a rope hanging from a lamppost was much more exciting than spending hours on a modern computer game . . . honest!

This famous lamppost swing was at the bottom of Sackville Street.

Street swing fun in the shadow of one of our many tenement blocks.

This is an unusual picture. Out street football was rarely interrupted by cars. They were simply few and far between in our old streets.

Street football was a serious business. It could get up to 30 a side, but in the main was a simple kick-about with mates.

We made our fun playing on the bomb sites we called the debris or the oller. In this wonderful picture, two little boys are digging for 'treasure', overseen by an older lad, possibly a brother. One child hides behind a well dressed sister. After a full day 'playing in the muck' our mums would have us straight into the tin bath, taken down off a nail in the backyard wall. The bath would be filled with steaming hot water filled using pans and the kettle on an old stove. Alternatively we would be plonked on the back kitchen draining board for a washdown in the sink.

Our street cricket wasn't played on a green pitch, grass cut to perfection, but rather on what we called oller or debris, those bomb sites from WW2. These areas were littered with broken bricks and glass, but were our very own inner city 'Disneyland' play areas where we gathered every day. Often half bricks were used to build the wickets.

This image will make you smile. It was called 'Shake the bed clothes' or more often than not 'The Bumps' which were given on your birthday. One bump for every year. It would be a painful exercise for those Forties/ Fifties kids who are now senior citizens!

Hopscotch was a big summer pavement favourite, using chalk or slate to mark out the squares and numbers.

Sackville Street May procession. All the streets kept up this tradition in the 1950s/60s, girls using old white net curtains to dress as brides, boys opting for Cowboy and Indian outfits.