i remember going over the railway lines to bira (is that how it was spelt?) youth club from setting dyke and ainthorpe. got the t shirt that night and the blood all over it as well!!!!!!
Me too, kids have more stuff today, but experience far less. I love my Hull childhood, it's served me well.
I used to ride cycle speedway for the Black Knights. We started up on some waste ground near St Mikes and then moved to old tennis courts off Sutton Road. I spent hours fixing up bikes for the racing. I used to go through spokes like crazy and had at one time seven bikes in the club shed. We used something like 28 tooth rear sprockets and 36 front. We straightened the front forks in a drain and stuffed sand down the handle bars to bend then without creasing the bar. No helmets but I am sure that we had a coloured cap. I wore black motor bike gauntlets and on my inside foot I had a rubber overshoe. We had our club colours on a tabard. It was good honest fun. The only time that was ever boring was Sunday afternoon. We would sit and listen to "sing something simple" waiting for the telly to start. I hated Sunday tea time and still do. I was lucky, we had a square pattern on our "fitted" carpet (posh for NHE) and I used it to line my matchbox cars up. There was always a cloths horse up in front of the gas fire all day Sunday as me Mam worked during the week. I dont think that I actually sat on a chair in our living room ever! It was the kitchen or I sat and played on the floor. I was spoilt, My dad was a train driver and me Mam a school cook, we never went without and as the youngest I was always dressed in good shoes and clothes. I know that for some this could be a rose tinted view of our childhood world, but for me I was right in the middle. Down our street my mates Mam would pawn her best coat every Friday, they had chickens in their front room. I would be called in for my tea and when I went out again, my mate still would be outside having had nothing. He never said a word, but he would jump at a chance to have tea at our house. I just never saw it. But there was a cost to playing out. Every night I would have to have my head checked for nits!! Even we struggled at times and we had to make do. Looking back at the cheap food we would have it was bacon ribs that signaled a tightening up. My Dad supplemented his income by washing windows and doing Freddy Briggs shoe repairs. I only found out after dealing with his affairs that he paid in extra to his works pension and this really was a luxury out of his wages. I was lucky, we had fantastic holidays. When I was 12 we went to Davos in Switzerland, the teachers at Shultz called me a lying git when I told them where I had been. I had to take the leaflet from the hotel to prove it.
we made our own track on barchards train yard land near 'big 'ill' off spring bank west extension and rode for the West Hull Rockets. that was in the day when you could go to Temple Street Bike scrap yard and buy all the second hand bits you needed to build as many bikes as you needed. god i got some shail grazes from the railway line quality cr@p we made the track from. Kingston Cyclones were the only real quality team around back then with the obvious interest from their Hessle Road sponsors. Also, the Schofield brothers of course
Davos in Switzerland the nearest we ever got to abroad was Fleetwood and that was only because me dads sister lived there we used to go on his motorbike and sidecar (triumph speed twin) we went through the out skirts of Leeds to get there still had trams running.
We went by train, my Dads railway pass meant that we only had to pay for the Hotel. For 30years my Mam and Dad travelled throughout Europe each summer. As I said I was lucky. But nobody gave my parents anything, they grafted for it all.
I’m not saying we were unlucky we had some smashing holidays as kids, the club man had a caravan at Reighton Gap we used rent it nearly every year
Ah nostalgia! Chants Ave. Bricknell Jnr High til '76. Hull Boys in the evenings (cant even remember where) but Perth St chippie on way home for 'scrapings'. 60p to get in South Stand. Biking round the docks on Sundays.
How old are you? I lived off Spring Bank I went to Wawne Street school then went to Hall road school, Played football on "COPO" field where St Stevens Car park is now. great days.All my old mates were from those Spring bank streets.
Unless you mean a different thing, Hull Boys Club was down Roper Street off Waterhouse Lane. Imagine 9 year olds now walking through the red light area at 9, 10 o'clock at night these days!
I had my first and last boxing match in the club down Roper street not so happy memories I was murdered by a kid half my size.
Mel U The lad you knew who never had much to eat, did he live on 21st ave. and did his second name begin with an S and end with a H This family had an air raid shelter in there back garden and we use to climb onto it then leap off the roof. always bound to pick up nits as well when playing with them Course it wasnt there fault some people just didnt have much money...
No Scar he didn't but I know who you mean. Loads of people know my family in and around North Hull, Me mam will tell you just about every family name on the estate.
Thats the thing with things these days such as fifa, if we'd of had them in the 70's I would never of touched my buckaroo or fuzzy felt!
I reckon a few of you older lads are probably part of the 'rival gangs' mentioned in other people's posts. You could have been sworn enemies in your childhoods.
