Win the chance to have your family tree researched and recorded - worth £150 *NOW CLOSED*

I loved school, both infant and junior...

My mother coming home from hospital with my beautiful little sister. I was 7 and ready to be a 'little mum'!

Playing with my sister in the grounds of the derelict house next door - we could hide in and climb the rhododendrons, explore the roofless cellars, admire the peonies. Who needs an adventure playground!

Our annual day trip to Hilary Island with my Gran, my brother, My Aunty and Uncle and 2 cousins and when the tide came in the seals would swim to watch us. Magical.

Heading off to my grandparents where my grandfather would entertain me with quizzes and puzzles

My earliest memory is the tin bath in front of the fire. It was too cold to bathe upstairs. No central heating just a big coal fire in one room. I was probably under a year old.

I can still remember Christmas when I was five. My dad had been off work sick for a while so money was tight and there was not enough for a proper Christmas tree. My dad managed to get three large branches off the large tree at the fire station where he worked and mum arranged them and made our tree which we decorated.
On Christmas Eve my grandmother came to see us and in beknown to my little brother and I she had brought a beautiful but small Christmas tree with her.
When we got up the next day there was this gorgeous Christmas tree decorated and sparkly with lights and lovely chocolates hanging on it!
Santa had left part of the old tree sticking out the fireplace but had managed to eat his mince pie !
I still love to put my tree up on Christmas Eve as it brings back those happy memories.

Being lifted out of my cot, held in my mother’s arms. Looking out of the window to see the Salvation Army band standing around the lamp post. One of them looked up and saw us. Then they played ‘Away in a Manger’ for me. It’s still one of my favourites.

Visiting my auntie (mother’s sister) who kept chickens and an old duck. So excited when asked for the first time to go and collect the chicken eggs out of the nest. The chickens were still sitting on the nest/eggs and I became scared of putting my hand under the chickens. I eventually picked up courage and tentatively collected many eggs. Alas, most of them were pot eggs, which I didn’t realise. We all had a laugh at my expense!

Standing over my mums electronic mangle, she fed wet clothes through and i caught them squashed flat on the other side, it was mesmerising!

Being asked to be 'Chief' Bridesmaid to my cousin when I was 11 years old - I thought I'd never be anyone's bridesmaid because I was such a plain jane but it was the best day of my life (at the time).

Getting our first(tiny) TV set when I was about 6, and dad pacing out a distance of several feet from it where our chairs were set up. If we moved any closer the set was switched off as we would be affected by ' the radiation' from it. Strangely it obviously wouldn't harm adults who would spend varying lengths of time standing behind it twiddling with the indoor aerial..... Or maybe the 'rays' only travelled out of the screen along with the picture!!

Going to see Blackpool lights in my Uncles car, which was a very small car called 'Betsy'. There were 4 adults and 3 children (no seat belts then), and when we got to the lights my Uncle would open the sunroof and us 3 children, who until then were seated in the footwell, would stand on our little stools and put our heads through the sunroof and we would drive from the start of the lights to the finish. As we came away from the lights heading home there was a fish and chip shop that we would stop at and have our supper. It was magical.

Walking so proudly along the wall around my grandparent's garden, aged about three. I was showing off my brand new patent leather shoes to my grandfather, when I tipped over and the wail that followed was more to do with scuffing my shoes than my bloodied elbow. Naturally, the shoes have long gone but I still bare the scar of my misadventure

There were so many happy times that it is difficult to pick just one! When I was about ten, we went to stay on a farm in Rothesay for two weeks. The farmer's wife let us collect the eggs each morning which we (my sister and I) loved. We helped bring in the hay and then rode home on top of the hay. We played in the hay barn and made dens. We climbed a manure heap to see the farm cat's kittens. They were pure white, unlike their mother, and had blue eyes. We went on walks in the surrounding area and saw a stoat. The beach was nearby with white sand and the water was shallow for a long way out. All in all, it felt like living in paradise for a couple of weeks.

I was very shy when I attended my Sunday School Christmas party. All the children seemed to be running round the hall making a racket, while I stood in a corner. The curate must have spotted me because he took me by the hand and asked me to help give out the jelly. He explained the jelly was in traffic light colours, red, orange and green.I was so happy to be asked to help and because I felt important I stopped being shy. He would be surprised to know I remembered his kindness all these years later.

My parents taking me and my sister to Battersea Park, especially the tree walk

Visiting our Grandparents for Sunday afternoon tea, all the grandkids were there every week. Nan used to butter the bread before she cut it and she cut it by holding the bread against her chest and slicing the knife towards herself!! Granddad sat in the chair in the corner looking for all the world like Winston Churchill and wouldn't allow the light on or curtains closed until it was completely dark.
All the kids used to play on the landing halfway up the stairs. All in all a health and safety nightmare by today's standards, but nobody ever worried and no-one was ever hurt.

Aunty Lily was the best Aunty in the world who could make every day special. She wasn't my real Aunty but she always welcomed me into her family.
My best memory was Christmas 1946. The National Health Service had been brought in and so Aunty Lily made the most of it with free cotton wool from the Doctor. She always had a huge real Christmas tree and along with her 4 children, I sat down and made cotton wool snowmen and stuck cotton wool snow on to her windows.
I lived with my Grandma and we didn't celebrate Christmas. When Aunty Lily learnt that I didn't have a Christmas tree tree there, she took off a large branch from the bottom of hers.
That was a very special year for me because for the first time, I had my very own Christmas tree in my bedroom with a silver star on top and cotton wool snow men hanging from its branches.

I had a very unhappy childhood, but I loved going to my mum's sister home, my aunty Joan and Uncle Dick. My mum was ok but married a man that liked a drink too much and didn't much trust women, because of something that happened to him as a child.
Went to my uncle and aunts and got loads of cuddles and felt safe. This isn't a sob story, just how it was back in the day.

My dad walked through the door with his beige Mac on when I was 3 and out of the top popped a tiny ball of fluff it was amazing
She was a chocolate brown miniature poodle who became my best mate for 13 years nothing has ever beat that excitement

Losing my Dad aged 5 and ‘helping’ Mum do the chores. I learnt to cook a full dinner at a young age as Mum was back and forward to the hospital as my younger brother was chronically sick. There were 4 older brothers who couldn’t cook a piece of toast without burning it.

My Mum taught me how to scrape potatoes and carrots with a lolly stick or a blunt butter knife, (so I didn’t cut myself) and how to only use the knife to chop. She taught me to chop properly, push the knife away from me, and how to make sure the potatoes had lots of sides so they got crispy in the oven. Cut them small for mash. If peeling use the peeler and keep the skins for tea the next day.

I watched how to make cakes and pies, and I remember the day I came home from school aged 7 to find Mum had had to rush to the hospital again. What I didn’t know what that my 4 year old brother was being given the last rites as he was so ill....

I decided I’d help out by making dinner. I did it all (chops, roast potato, parsnips, mash and peas) and fed myself and the siblings. Gravy was rotten (only Oxo back then, I didn’t know how to make Bisto in a pan)

Was drying dishes when Mum walked in from the hospital around 8pm. She looked tired, bedraggled from the 90 minute journey home. My brother was out of the woods and stable for the moment. I made her a cup of tea while she stretched out in her chair, wiggling her toes as they hurt from walking so much.

I remember the conversation like it was yesterday..

‘Ok, I’ll drink my tea then find something for your dinner’
‘Mum I made the dinner.’
‘Oh what have you made?’
‘Stay there I’ll bring it in to you...’

When I walked in with a tray for her with a proper cooked dinner on it she just cried. It was dried out after putting it back in the oven (didn’t know to cover it with another plate either) but she ate every bit.

I was nearly 8 years old. It was another part of my long hard childhood where you had to learn quick to survive. I’m still here to tell the tale tho sadly Mums not.

Hard by happy days... and I’m great at making gravy now!

As a child of 3 I was scared of sweep in Sooty and Sweep so my granddad, usually quite a remote figure would take me into the kitchen at their house and tell me my favourite story Goldilocks and the three bears until the show was over. We didn’t have our own tv then so would go across to their house to watch special programmes.

My favourite childhood memory is standing on an old stone bridge with my Dad watching lightning bouncing off the waves in the river....very dramatic (and probably very dangerous!!), but to this day I love thunderstorms and have never been frightened by the elements....thanks Dad.

As a child , regularly helping my mother feed the cats and kittens at the local mill (there to keep the mice and rat population down).

Any wonder then that we have always had a cat.