@John, you must remember the zoo then? I think it had an aivary in it. The rest of the Park is lovely apart from the old zoo. A gem in need of restoration.
We used to spend all summer up at Clarksies - the aviary was great and it had little rabbits and guinea pigs as well - and a hothouse. There was a sign by the gate saying "No Perambulators" - I never knew what that meant for years - I didn't know it was the "big" word for pram.
We used to ride up on our bikes with some jam butties and spend all day playing and running down the hills at the back of the hall - you could but an ice cream from the little shop. Then I had my wedding reception there in 1985. It was beautiful inside (we booked it for the grounds cos out church is by the gasworks) but it rained all day so all the pics were inside. We still go up there a lot - though there are the usual stupid yobs on motor bikes spoiling it for the kids. It is lovely there.
Yup - baptised, confirmed, married - probably come out feet first one day!! And all the kids - last one getting confirmed in November. Good to have history and continuity.
Dya remember the Pirate's grave??
OMW (not to blashpeme) yes, yes yes!!!! It is/ was flat on the ground. I remember (can u tell I'm buzzing with excitement?). We used to visit it as kids and wonder........We also used to dare each other to run around the church in the darkness, our pockets full of Wham Bars, He- Man Jellies and Highland Toffe Bars. Them was the days eh? I used to by my sweets from the shop across the rd. Then there was the ghost I saw....
From McFerran's?
About the grave - in the book "Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" there is a picture of a grave very similar - it was the grave of a Master Freemason - I wonder if the one in the churchyard is as well? I showed the picture to the Vicar - Bill - do you remember Mr Letheren, and he was quite interested. There are lots of really interesting graves in there - young cabin boys who drowned in the 17th Century - steeped in history our old church.
We used to dare each other to run around the church in pitch blackness during the dark nights to see how fast we could run it in. Of course we would always bottle out so this one time we all decided to run around in a group of about 6. We were about 10 years of age at the time and I drew the short straw and had to go at the front. This was as bad as going at the back because knowone wants to be left behind do they?
So there we were, counting down from 10 to 0 several times with a few false starts. Once we finally shot off past where the Vicar's entrance is, we were running very fast with chocolate bars stuffed in our mouths. Peggin' it round we were, suddenly we approached the large doors on the other side of the church, the ones closer to the gass - works wall (remember it was pitch black) when we were greeted by this glowing white 'thing' that shot from the graves into the church through that door which was shut tight and is never used or wasn't when I was kid, it was about the size of a small dog but wasn't.
So we all absolutely cacked ourselves, stopped in our tracks, every piece of chocolate fell out of our open mouths and screaming we ran back the way we came!
Wow...I'm down there a lot when it's dark for different things and I haven't seen anything....wooooooooo....bad enough to drop yer choccy eh??
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