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The 'Bombs to Butterflies' Interviews
Interviewees: Roy Peacock
Interviewers: Margaret Lawson and Ken Smith
Date of Interview: 04.01.02
Where you born and bred in Ruddington, Roy?
Yes, I was born in Ruddington in 1944, November 15th, in a little terrace house on Top Road, No.7, which is off Asher Lane. They’re still standing.
And when did you move from there?
We moved to Elms Park, 21 Elms Park in 1948. I can’t exactly remember the month we moved up there, but it was quite an innovation because the terrace house we lived in with my parents and three sisters, and er, to get into a three bedroomed house which had got a Rayburn heater etc and a proper bathroom and toilet, was quite incredible.
I’m sure it was. So you were very close to the Depot really?
Yes. Where we were, on 21 Elms Park, which was on the left hand side as you go up Elms Park, our actual back garden was backing on to the Sports area, the cricket pitch etc. The opposite side was an area called Back Field which we managed to get through down Sheepfold Lane. Then that was sort of surrounded by fencing that kept us away from the site.
But you did get on to the site. When did you first get on there? How old would you be do you think?
That’s a difficult one, but it was in the 50’s. There was a whole group of lads who went to school together, but we obviously bypassed any form of security and we found our way underneath the fence or over the fence (laughter).
So you didn’t go through the security gates?
No. The only time, well yeh, I suppose if we reflect back to one of the chappies that we did go to school with , I might be wrong on this, but I think we called him Kit Carson after the famous cowboy on the television at that time or what have you, and I’m sure reflecting back his father was site manager, and the bungalow that he lived in was off of the gate from the green itself on to the site and I think his bungalow where his parents lived would be on the left hand side of the gate, if my memory serves me right.
So, what did you do when you got inside?
Well, it was our, er, American Adventure park (laughter). I mean, one of the areas that we used to frequent was the old boiler house. But there was the site itself, there was so much to do. There was the raspberries that we used to go and pick and then there was areas that we would play in and it was a competition between us and the site police (laughter). Who could run fastest (laughter).
Did you ever get caught?
No. No we didn’t get caught. We nearly got caught once, but it was a bit of a tragic incident where one of the lads, er, can’t quite remember his name now, got caught on the barbed wire and ripped his thigh quite badly and ended up in hospital. But he was okay.
Did you do all the things that boys did, making dens?
Yes, we used to make dens, er , Back Field especially we’d excavate a large hole in the ground and put corrugated iron over the top.
You’d actually dug a hole and lined it with corrugated iron?
Yes, we lined the roof with corrugated sheeting and then put sods on, grass sods. We made a sort of a fireplace, there were steps down into it. We would have a, an old sacking that would conceal the entrance. Yeh, it was quite good. We was the innovation of the Special Air Services I suppose in some respects (laughter).
That’s one way of looking at it. Did you actually light fires?
Yeh. We had fires. We used to take jacket potatoes and um, things like that.
Sounds like an idyllic childhood to me. Did you ever do anything quite dangerous?
Um, I think one of the most dangerous things was getting onto
the site itself. There was incidents where, these large batteries, I can always
remember that you could always remove the, like these tubings from the batteries,
and we didn’t know what was in them, I suppose it might have been acid
or something, but we didn’t see it as er, it was just an adventure as
far as we were concerned.
There was some tanks up there at one time. They weren’t actually on
the site, they was parked up the top end of Asher Lane. I think they were
old Sherman tanks that had the barrels cut off. Yeh, we used to get in there
not realizing that the tops could close in on us and we wouldn’t be
able to get out, yeh, yeh, and there was the lorries up for sale. We’d
clamber round, have a rummage round (laughter).
It seems, I say, just a boys dream world really. And how many were in the group?
Oh blimey, oh, ten, twelve of us I suppose, perhaps there wouldn’t be that many going over, but it was just the friends we were with at the time and that we hadn’t fallen out with if we’d had a good day.
I was going to ask that. Did you disagree, did you have quarrels?
Well yes, as lads we always had quarrels, who’d got the football, and if someone had got a football then they were top dog. It was the same as when we made trolleys out of old bits and bobs and if you had an old car steering wheel that you’d have, and a piece of a bike that you’d put a chain on which you nail onto the spars at the front so that you could use the steering wheel and perhaps have a seat on it. The other thing we used to do is we used to have flour bombs and fill balloons full of water and throw them and things like that. Like lads do – jumpin’ and all that.
What about other things? You’d mentioned about strawberries on the site.
Raspberries, wild raspberries.
Raspberries, you did say raspberries, my mistake. Was there anything else you picked?
Yes, mushrooms. The old cordite field, where they used to burn the cordite after the war and there was absolutely an abundance of real good quality awesome field mushrooms, yeh.
And you picked those. Did you eat them?
Sometimes if we were coming back, there might be lorries on the Loughborough Road and they’d stop us and buy them off us sometimes.
You would actually sell the mushrooms?
Oh yeh. We didn’t go intentionally picking to sell them, but if someone offered you 2s 6d for them or 1s 6d or a bob (laughter), it’s money.
And that’s given you a life long interest in fungi, hasn’t it?
Well most lads in Ruddington at the time were, well there
still are a lot of people who go out
after bluies and other types of edible fungi, yeh, I think it gave us a good
interest because we used to spend a lot of time from the site and go down
Gotham moors also and we’d spend a lot of time down there.
I know you have a great interest in wildlife. It might be interesting if you thought for a moment what other kinds of wildlife you recall?
I mean, yeh, we used to go down , you’d get into trouble for doing it nowadays, but we never actually destroyed wildlife, we used to collect moor hens eggs and we used to collect pheasants eggs, but not for, but for consumption. I remember there was a gentleman, we’ll call him a gentlemen yeh, who got poisoned from eating too many moor hens eggs and he had a bit of the old trots for a few days (laughter), but he consumed quite a large amount. But we never actually robbed eggs, take the whole lot of eggs, we’d probably take two. Moor hens produce quite a lot of eggs, so if you take two , yeh, so that was one of the things – and obviously we used to collect birds eggs , but not completely robbing the nest, take one. So people had very good collections of bird eggs. But obviously, you can’t do it these days.
No. What about the fruit. Did you go scrumping?
Yes, we used to go scrumping . I remember once we got caught
at the croft on Loughborough Road and the sergeant, I forget his name now,
we were actually told to go back and pick the fruit when it was ready. So,
after we had actually picked the fruit we were allowed to take a quantity
for our own personal use, which was rather nice. So there was nothing about
being dragged underneath in front of a Magistrate’s court, if you got
into trouble by the police, you got into trouble by your Dad and you went
back and you resolved your crime by picking the fruit for the persons, you
know.
Yeh, but there were other things to pick. There was the old damsons and plums
which apparently, still a couple of trees on the Rushcliffe Park, which are
still there, still quite prolific. So that was the other thing. Obviously
the other things, blackberrying and what have you that we used to do. Yeh,
but it was great, certainly an education. And certainly the thing was that
we were out in the fresh air all the time, especially in the major school
holidays, we were never at home. We were either there or at Gotham moors,
we used to spend a lot of time down there. There was a stream up near Wysall
where we used to go quite a lot as well.
Did you take a packet of sandwiches or something with you?
No, we used to take something like some, er, jacket potatoes and we’d light a fire and throw them on , that kind of stuff, or some bread, probably something else, anything we could get us hands on, yeh (laughter).
Is there anything else that you recall, that you’d like to tell me?
Err, besides getting my, clouted by me Dad (laughter). No, that , there is a lot to talk about, there is a lot to tell about our childhood in Ruddington, there were so many people and so many lads that had an enjoyable time.
Can I ask you about girls? Did girls feature in this?
Yes. There was a lot of girls up there and they was all part of the gang I suppose.
It was, in fact, a mixed gang?
Yes, there was none of this gender issue, there was no prejudice between either of us, or anybody, we just played and got on together. It was quite a unique community I suppose, Elms Park.
I’m sure it was. Thank you for talking to us.
It was a pleasure.
Interviews > Interview with Roy Peacock