Ray Hill recalls happy summer days as a boy in Clifton Park, Rotherham

If you didn’t go to the seaside for a holiday or day trips, Clifton Park, which opened in 1891, was the next best thing. I was very fortunate that I had a week’s holiday and day trips all through my childhood.

When I was young I would be taken by my mother, along with a few cousins and aunties.

The two main attractions for us kids was the kids’ enclosure and the paddling pool, when it was warm.

There were two big roundabouts - one for the lads, a cowboy themed one with stagecoaches and horses, and the one for the girls with a princess theme with royal coaches and horses. There was also a train on a round track.

For the older kids was the ‘crazy’ bikes. These weren’t driven by pedalling but by making the seat go up and down. You could say by ‘bum power’!

Even 50 years or more later, people still referred to them as “those crazy bikes”. Until a few years ago nobody had a picture of them until I came across one on the internet and I put it on Facebook.

A woman came back to me asking where I’d got the picture from. It turned out she’d taken the photo herself in the 50s of her young sister being assisted by her husband in Clifton Park.

She was now living in Canada and was surprised to see it. It turned out the young sister had put the photo out and it turned up on the internet. It brought many memories back to the Rotherham people on Facebook.

This was then surpassed a year ago when a woman put a coloured video on one of the Rotherham sites that was taken by her late father when she was very young. It also showed the donkeys that you could ride on.

Nobody had ever seen anything like this, it was sheer magic for us that only had fading memories of that time.

Just outside of the kids’ area was a long, black wooden building that was the cafe where you could buy cold drinks and ice cream and a cuppa tea for adults.

Next to the kids’ area was an aviary, although I only went in a couple of times so can’t say much about it.

Then was the paddling pool which on warm days was very welcome for cooling off.

The thing most remembered about the pool was the roughness of the surface, I suppose it was to stop slipping, but everybody mentions getting scraped knees.

Summer playscheme pictures

Outside the aviary was where you could ride on the donkeys. They were stabled up on Herringthorpe Playing Fields behind the big old pavilion. They were walked to and from the park.

A couple of women on Facebook mentioned they used to walk them down and back with the owner when they were young girls.

Before we move away from the kids’ area there is one thing that can’t be forgotten. The ‘Camel’, which was an old tree with an extended trunk like a camel’s neck. It was as popular as any of the rides you had to pay for and it was free. Kids would queue up to climb on it.

Later on, when we were older, the museum was an attraction, particularly Nelson the fully-grown stuffed lion in the big glass case just inside the main entrance. That is a story in itself.

At the corner of the park, bordered by Doncaster Road and Middle Lane, was an area fenced off inside steel railings where events were held at the weekends. They included displays by the police and other forces. Most popular would be the western rodeo and the speedway riding events.

People would come from all over South Yorkshire, as they still do now to the new features in the park

The park is recognised as one of the top ones in the country. It’s not unusual to see three or four coaches in the car park during the summer holidays.

The old rides from my days are long gone with more modern amusements and paddling pool awaiting the kids of today.

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