Children made their own entertainment on the streets of Victorian Bedminster - not always with the consent of adults. One man recalled, ‘we used to pass our time away having a stroll in Hancock’s Woods. We used to buy a penny worth of lemonade crystals, put them in two pint bottles and take that.’ However, they would ‘scoot’ if a policeman came round the corner. Anyone misbehaving would be whipped around the ear with the heavy police cape.

Although the authorities were strict, everyone in the street knew each other. ‘Where I lived there was a general shop. We used to have a drawing pin, pin a button on the front and pull the string so that it would knock against the shop, and the woman would come out and have a look around.’

Other favourite pranks included simply leaving a sugar bag filled with dirt on the street so that someone would pick it up, and Knock up Ginger, a game that involved knocking on a neighbour’s door and running away.

As they grew older, young people’s pastimes grew even less innocent. One man recalled kissing girls and trying his first cigarette at the age of 14. He also went shooting rabbits for the dinner table.

A woman who looked after her family when her mother died of Scarlet Fever remembered playing with spinning tops and a skipping rope. ‘I suppose the way we were brought up was good for us – it taught us to respect other people.’