All food was delivered to the door in those days from Grocers to Green grocers to Butchers and even vans with cakes.

Children from Swalwell, would come on Easter Monday and ask them if they could roll their eggs down our hill. My grandmother would sit on a chair at the bottom supplying eggs to children who did not have any. After this event, she would always direct her hens to the field and they would pick up all the shells dropped by the children from the eaten eggs.

Lots of children would play on the Hikey Bridge as we called it, because we liked jumping up and down on to make it move.

Sadly, grand-dad Oxley, died in 1946, and we shifted from the farm then and Uncle George went to live in the house.

Diphtheria - Sheila Carver

In 1944 both my sister and I had diphtheria. I was in hospital for six weeks but my sister was in for eight weeks and never off the danger list because she was terribly ill and could not walk for months. Lots of children died when we were in Norman's Riding Hospital. I know two children from Swalwell died so I suppose that we were lucky. I sadly was the carrier and had been immunized just the month before by Doctor Edward Smith. They were doing the immunizations in the old house, which once stood in Whickham Park. We were given nothing to eat for three weeks only hot milk, which I hated. We were also given a dose of Cascara every Friday night, such vile stuff, how primitive, every child could not possibly have needed that! Such were the times, doctors today would not agree with that policy.