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

The hours spent outside. Our garden, on my bike, friends round to play, exploring for hours, skipping rope across the cul- de- sac, scooter and roller skates, collecting bags full of conkers .. the freedom.

riding on the back shelf in Dads lorry behind his head, our own little den!

Listening to my grandad when he was a cook on the ship in the first world war. what tales he told.

Trips to the coast. Making sandcastles with my dad & always a ride on the Merry go Round.

Going to Butlins, Filey with my mum, dad and sister on holiday and one day entering the talent show and not telling them. The look on their faces was priceless as they watched me sing on the largest stage on one level in Europe. I didn’t win but I did get to the final!

Waiting for my mum and dad to bring my new ( soon to be adopted by them) baby sister home. To my seven year old self this was all I had been wishing for.

Walking along Blackpool beach collecting pretty seashells with my mum and dad then making a lovely sandcastle and placing the seashells on the castle until the sea came in and washed them all away happy memories

My grandfather was a fruitless and had been a travelling hawker. He had spent a lot of time in the northeast travelling between our own town and whitby over the moors. I would work in his shop for a shilling wages as a child. I sat on a sack of potatoes with a big knife cutting the leaves off the faces of the xaulufliwers for display. Then scooping the potatoes out of the sacks to tip into the display racks because i was about 6 or 7 i obviously couldnt lift sacks of anything high into racks so i had to handball everything bit by bit I remember building the window display with old plywood boxes turned upside down build up over like seats at a football ground then covering them with artificial turf then displaying the beautiful navel oranges and the grapefruit and satsumad etc etc.
Then it was turn to stack the piles of trays of eggs I got out of huge boxes*I never remember breaking any)
My grandfather was so patient with me I loved to watch him bank the old coal fire up in the back of the shop it sealed to take forever. Whilst i would be squeezing my arms around me to keep warm whilst he took out yesterday's ashes sweeping every little bit then screwing the newspapers and placing bits of kindling from the said plywood boxes I think tomatoes came in them. Then the pieces of coal strategically placed on the top.
Once it took a grip it would be a roaring fire sitting in front of it smelling the coal and burning hot but never moved further bag. Sat drinking a mug of warmed milk with bournville chocolate powder in. I worked hard but oh I so enjoyed those treats . Then when the weekend came we would go in the back of granddad van to whitby. I adored the pkace. The salty smells and the very loud seagulls firebombing us and sqwarking loudly above us.
Eating chips and candy floss and ice cream it's a wonder I wasn' t sick. Then cinder toffee or rock to take home for pressies for my parents.
When i lost my grandad my dreams were shattered. The family sold the shop. And all i had were memories. But really good memories. I can still smell the fire.

Going to the berries ( raspberry picking)

One Christmas when the whole family got together for a meal at a pub in Wales.
I still get a lovely feeling when I think about it!

tea parties at Grans where we would have ours under the table in our little den

Being in my grandmother's garden with chickens, fruit bushes and trees and lots of veg. Wonderful, especially when the raspberries were fruiting.

My favourite childhood memory is the precious time I spent with my wonderful grandparents. I wish I could spend just 5 more minutes with them just to tell them how much I love them

Going to my Great grandmothers house where all the family would gather on a Sunday afternoon and sing together. My Grandad and brothers were in male voice choirs so it was quite something to hear.

Sitting on my grandfathers lap, hands in his armpits to warm them up, I always suffered from cold hands and feet. And playing noughts and crosses with him using a small stub of pencil.

Leaving after breakfast with a picnic on my bike with instructions to be back by 5pm for tea during the summer holidays - freedom! Exploring woods and countryside, castles and town. No phone or GPS in those days!

As the youngest of four I longed to be allowed to stay home alone so my best memories are of the times that happened - I would dance like no one was watching (because they weren't!) & do my idea of gymnastics in the era of Olga Korbut. Actually another great memory was when we went on a school trip to watch some gymnastics at Wembley &, from where we were seated, we could see into the warm-up/practise area where we spotted her - she saw us watching & waved! Cue lots of over-excited little girls, lol

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.

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 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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.