The Meadows This was one of the great play options for us kids from Northumberland Avenue. You could swim here if you were brave enough, and quite a few were. We'd cycle down with Car tyre inner tubes around our torsos, jump in and show off all the tricks we'd learnt in the swimming pool - which was nearby but costed money, besides the sunshine, splashes and shouts had a better feel in the river. In today's environmentally sensitive age people are well aware of the health dangers of rivers and no-one  swims there now. The A1 sliced the top end of the Meadows in half  but it was built a little before our time and we just accepted the presence of all those people whizzing past. I wonder how many of them gazed down and observed our adventures and thought of their own precious youth. 

Perhaps time plays tricks, I always imagine that the wild flowers were more numerous than they are today and that the sun was brighter and the sky bluer - perhaps it all is when your  memories are forming and you are imploring your mother and aunt and cousins to take you all the way to the third meadows. 

And so you return with the eyes of a grown-up but the present day  lacks the colours of your childhood and you walk the river disappointed until, suddenly you see the briefest flash of a beautiful blue and you have seen a Kingfisher for the first time - there is still much to discover and maybe you have to look backwards to see the present day in a new light. 

Back to Stamford Index