Hilldene shops / Recreation, Education, Disillusionment and Joy

Val Carpenter:

'I remember the whole summer holidays you would be out on the street. You would go out all day and you would roam over to Bedfords Park, Noak Hill, South Weald, Brentwood. It was all quite wild then. I remember going near Gallows Corner where it used to be wild fields and going bareback horse riding there – you didn’t know who would own the horses, you would just jump on them.

You would go further afield and make camps in Dagnam Park and Central Park before they built the swimming pool.

This was as young as eight or nine and nobody thought anything of it. You would be playing before it got dark, in the road. Everywhere you went on the ‘Hill there would be groups of young people playing.'