Here are some memories from the last 60 years, get in touch if you’d like to add yours.
In 1962 Lionwood was rather smaller than it is now: it was basically a valley bounded on one side by Thorpe Hamlet Junior school playing fields, and the spiked iron railings of the waterworks which ended at the path which came out onto Telegraph Lane. On the other side was a fence running along the top of the steep slope, forming the boundary of Mousehold House grounds. There was a narrow path which followed the fence, finishing at the end of the back gardens on Wellesley Avenue South.
I, and my two other 7-year-old commandos crept up the slope, silently overcoming the German sentries at the top, then melted through the holes in the fence of Mousehold House, planning to regroup in enemy territory.
In an effort to rejoin the others, I broke cover, swerved around a bush and came to a halt beside a well-dressed couple looking up into the pine trees above them. The man fixed me with a stare, raised his finger to his lips and beckoned me forward. I thought that I was in for it, but he just pointed up into the trees.
There were two red squirrels chasing around the branches and trunks of the pines. We must have watched for five minutes or so before they scampered off.
The man looked down at me and said “You are very lucky to have seen them – there are very few left. Soon there won’t be any here”. I thanked him, then ran off to rejoin my friends.
I think that I was lucky, and am still grateful that they were pointed out to me.
~Andy P
Poem from 1950s about a close call in the woods
I was about seven when I got stuck in the tree
We were down in Lion woods, my brother, mum and me.
It looked like rain and the skies were grey
We had coats and welly boots on, it was a dull September day.
We were messing about my brother and me
And I climbed to the top of the crab-apple tree.
It was on the way down that the trouble struck –
I slipped near the bottom and my knee got stuck.
Where two trunks met I was jammed in a cleft
I couldn’t move right, couldn’t move left.
Couldn’t move up, couldn’t move down.
I was stuck about two feet from the ground.
Well we pulled and shoved, my mum and me
But I was stuck fast and I couldn’t get free.
I was getting tired and I felt a fool
And then some kids coming out of school
Stopped and turned and looked and laughed.
And they would have carried on walking past
But my mum said, “Hey, can you lend us a hand!”
By this time it was getting hard to stand.
So they held me up and pulled and shoved
From down below and up above.
But I was stuck.
More lads arrived, and more and more,
And someone said they’d call the law
And the fire brigade and the ambulance
“You never know, can’t take a chance.”
It started to drizzle, not quite rain
But I was fine, I felt no pain.
A crowd had gathered around the tree
Some people gave sweets and biscuits to me.
Then in the distance I heard clanging bells
And the firemen arrived and the doc as well.
Two fire engines and fifteen crew
In yellow helmets and wellies too.
They came to the tree and had a look
And pushed and pulled and shoved and shook.
They heaved and strained but no such luck
Me and my knee were firmly stuck.
They stood around and thought some more
Then somebody sent for a cross-cut saw
And they sawed the bit that trapped my knee
And very soon they got me free
A cheer went up as they took me down
And in an ambulance I went through town
To hospital
Bells ringing, blue light flashing
Rush hour traffic, rain splashing.
But I was fine, a little dazed
Knee was OK just a little grazed.
The doc was kind, said, “Nothing broken”
My mum was relieved and as a token
Of our gratitude to the school she wrote
Praising the kids in her little note.
The head master was so amazed
It was very unusual for those lads to be praised
He was a hard man as a rule
But he gave those heroes a day off school.
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