Playing in the road

This sounds madness doesn’t it. I’m going back to just after WW11 when traffic was very sparse indeed. I lived by a country lane and the nearest reasonably large hard surface was the lane. At the time there was a slightly younger boy next door and we would happily play in the road. I would think there was maybe a vehicle every quarter of an hour if that.

From one direction we could see about a half mile and we could easily hear vehicles coming from the other. Vehicles were slower: I would guess about half were farm tractors travelling at less than 10 mph while lorries and the like were probably doing no more than 25mph.

The assortment of vehicles was large. There were very few private cars; I knew most of the drivers at least by sight. I didn’t know them all which was the cause of some embarrassment. I walked to the village school which was about a half mile. I was carefully schooled in how to behave. Walk to face the oncoming traffic and never accept lifts from strangers. One morning a car stopped and a lift was offered. I didn’t recognise the driver and I refused. The driver was obviously rather puzzled and I imagine a little hurt. I subsequently found out this was someone I should have known who lived in a nearby village. I happily accepted his lifts from then on.

My tuition in how to behave extended to persistent offers when I was to pretend my dad was in the next field and I was going to meet him. I suppose it would be unthinkable nowadays to let a 7or 8 year old child walk on his own.

I said we encountered a miscellany of vehicles. Very occasionally this included a steam lorry; looking back I can only think of one specific occasion. Even then I recognised that a pony and trap was a thing of the past. I recall one occasion when I had a lift in one and I realised it was a part of living history. Motor cycles with sidecars were around and my family were later proud owners of one. The first was pre war Norton with non standard sidecar and the bike still on solo gears. The second bought later was a 1948 over head valve single cylinder Norton with a coach built Watsonian side car. This had the then new feature of hydraulic front forks. There was no rear suspension so the ride was firm and bumpy.

There were also 3 wheel cars. Generally these were small sporty vehicles with two wheels at the front. The Reliant pattern of single wheel at the front was at first unusual although that pattern persisted well into the eighties. The sporty three wheelers were often powered by motorcycle air cooled engines and Morgan were the most common although I vividly recall seeing a BSA taking a corner too fast and just recovering after an excursion off the road.

Farm tractors were commonplace and I travelled many miles sitting on the mudguard of one. The old style Fordson tractors with their wide flat mudguards were easily the best while looking back some were downright dangerous. With no thought for health and safety we would hang around tractors working nearby and almost always got to ride on them. Now tractors are intended for one person only so it was often a case of clinging on standing beside the driver . As tractors had no suspension it was always a very bumpy ride.

I got to know the makes of tractor very well, Fordson, Allis-Chalmers, Nuffield , Field Marshall. The latter made a very distinctive “chuffing” noise . My favourite was the Fordson Major with its characteristic deep blue colour and standing taller than most. This was around the time when Ferguson were introduced, always in mid grey colour. Ferguson were small, with narrow mudguards so even more precarious than most, not that I ever minded.