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As kids, my friends and I were blessed with to have lots of space to play. Most of us had relatively large gardens and we all had local woods or open space where we could roam free. To a certain extent we were allowed to free range, within certain parameters set by our parents.

As you’d probably expect for young boys of that time (1970’s) we would climb trees, build dens and reenact out favourite movies; war films, Bond films and Star Wars movies were all deriguour. We were taught to say “no” to strangers (although I don’t remember having cause to) and often had sandwiches and squash with us for our “lunch”, with instructions to be back at a certain time for tea. I don’t ever remember those sandwiches ever actually being eaten at lunchtime, most likely they were forgotten about because we were having too much fun and eaten just before we were due back, or eaten as soon as practical because we were starving.

It wasn’t uncommon for us to come across the local gamekeeper and his assistant, who to be fair was pretty tolerant of us roam the woods. His general approach seemed to be that so long as we stayed away from his pheasant pens he had no problem with us. The threat of joining the jays and magpies on his gibbet was probably enough incentive to not upset him.

As we got older we were allowed to roam further afield. At the time we also had CB radios, this enabled us to play other games and looking back I also suspect now that it enable our parents to monitor what we were up to, although they never said anything at the time.

Nowadays I still occasionally walk in those woods where I played as a child, to my memory little seems to have changed. There’s no longer a pheasant shoot, so the wildlife is different – more what a gamekeeper would probably consider pests or predators – some paths have been allowed to grow over and others established. It’s still a working woodland, although much more mechanised that it was 40+ years ago, but ultimately the products produced remain pretty similar to what was produced all those years ago. It seems as though were some things have changed, many remain the same.

It’s also busier. As a child we’d go all day without seeing anyone, now there are dog walkers, runners and other users spread throughout the wood. My memory for the quiet spots is still pretty good though, so if I want to escape my fellow humans I can normally find a refuge.

When we move house in a few weeks I’ll also be closer to those woods again and able to visit more frequently. It makes me think if it will still be the same in another 40 years (although I probably won’t be around to tell you) but I will be able to see how it changes in the rest of my lifetime I suppose.

Thanks for reading.