Washburn Heritage Centre explores what life was like for school children over a century ago.

The event will reenact a school dinner, including a guided walk through the valley’s landscape and finishing with a Q & A session.

Kath Dinsdale 72, and Thomas Cox, 84, who will take part throughout the event revealed how different life was as they were growing up.

Mr Cox said: “I was born in Chiswick, London as my parents were civil servants, like most people they got married and lived near their place of work.

“We moved to the valley when I was very young, we were foreigners, outsiders for the most part.

“There was virtually no transport in the valley, nobody had a car.

“The Studebaker van would collect children to take to school.

“You could cram a lot of kids in it, one in every crack.

Mrs Dindsdale said: I went to Norwood school. I lived at the crossroads on the A59, known as ‘dangerous corner’.

“My family lived there for 200 years, I am still in the same house.

“I’m 6th generation.

“When I was a child there was a traffic accident every weekend.

“People being carried into our house with blood streaming down their face.

“My mother used to give them cups of tea which of course you aren’t supposed to.

“But that was the way then. You kind of got used to it.

“Even now it’s most weeks.

“We had to walk two miles with about 20 children in the school.

“Being a wartime generation food was rationed but at school we could go for second helpings, which we unheard of.”

Mr Cox said: “There was always sufficient.

“We had spotted dick, tapioca, semolina, and sago pudding which we hated.

“They’d give us cod liver oil, which we hid under our tongue to spit out later.

“The girls would always win the spelling competitions, so if they gave us a hard time we would play tricks on them with thistles, I am still sworn to secrecy about that.

”Of course we would get the cane.”

As soon as they became teenagers things changed, bicycles brought freedom, dances provided entertainment.

Mr Cox said: “Back then you have to appreciate that Monday was washing day, Tuesday was baking day, life had a routine.

“All sorts could happen on market day.

“People would take calves on the bus and we would help churn the butter to sell.

Mrs Dinsdale said: “We’d get excited seeing the posters for dances.

Mr Cox: “The dances we did, like the Gay Gordons, we just picked up.

“You’d get to change partners, some of them you’d keep at arms length,” he laughed.

Mrs Dinsdale said: “You wore your best dress.

“We used to wear six net underskirts, starch them to make them stick out, some with hoops through.

“Trouble is when you sit down…”

“Then we would walk over the moors home in pitch black.

“The dark didn’t bother us much back then.”

‘Children of the Valley’ takes place on Friday, July, 21.

To find out about upcoming events at Washburn Heritage centre follow the link: http://www.washburnvalley.org/events