4 of 24 - Bodmin moor 1963
Up until I was about 12 my family lived in a very small Cornish village on the fringes of Bodmin moor. The village had no shop or pub. The only other buildings it had apart from farm buildings and houses was a Church and a vicarage. The church dates to the 1430’s and had hosted notables such as John Wesley the Methodist evangelist, and John Couch Adams the astronomer who predicted the existence of Neptune. B ack in the early sixties it was common for children to play outside entirely unsupervised. This was not considered a dereliction of parental duty. Rather the assumption was that the freedom to roam would teach children valuable lessons regarding all manner of natural and manmade hazards, like stinging nettles, farm gates and gravity. I think I was about seven years old when I learnt my first tough lesson in gravity when I went exploring behind the vicarage. Parked up and out of commission behind the vicarage was a Rover P4. The Rover P4 was a splendid example of British p...