[Closed] They didn't muck about with kids swings in the olden days

Wow, is the ladder at each end so the nippers can walk across the top?

It's the two little girls wandering around at the bottom I'm worried about - do they know the risks they're taking?

I assume the two blokes are the guys who put it up giving it a test?

jeepers 😯

the ladders seem to be part of it - set up like monkey bars at each end.

It's Health and Safety taken the day off and gone on a bender, I tell you.

It's the two little girls wandering around at the bottom I'm worried about

awesome,... no wonder kids are soft as s@*te knowdays

looks like the ladders are for you to use before or after the rope.

That does look a bit high!

Hopefully a concrete floor under there ...

I want a go....

awesome,... no wonder kids [s]are soft as s@*te[/s] have a greater life expectancy knowdays

I do think that little girl is about to get taken out in dramatic style. We've all been taught not to run under swings, but they probably weren't.

I live just around the corner from Wicksteed Park. Still has lots of the old metal swings in but they look a little safer than that one!

The kid on the monkey bars looks like he's just done a couple of minutes in a George Formby grill.

Kids were so much harder back in the day. I bet if I shoved my lad in a waffle iron he'd only last 10 seconds.

The swinger on the right is doubled over cos his pipe just slipped out of his mouth.

Don't show Hora!

Swings seem to be proper rubbish these days. Getting shorter and shorter.
🙁

The guy on the left swing has got his "old chap" out.

this thread has brightened my day 😆

Kids were so much harder back in the day. I bet if I shoved my lad in a waffle iron he'd only last 10 seconds.

😀

That kid on the right swing is going to go for miles when he lets go.

Sorry for the daily mail link, but there's some great pics here:

http://www.****/news/article-2131790/When-playtime-wasnt-ruled-elf-safety.html

The pic of the girl hanging off the end of the group in pic 3 is great.

We had a Witches Hat in the park near us and it was bloody lethal. It was much bigger than the one in the pics linked to above and I was often too scared to go on it.
All the 'big kids' used to make it go really fast and it seemed really high. Kids use to regularly be flung from it.

I do think that little girl is about to get taken out in dramatic style.

No, she was pushing a kid on another swing, she was well clear of the other two. It was when she tried to get from the top of the ladder to the rope that she fell and broke her neck.

Imagine what their [i]Black Runs[/i] were like...!!!

Sorry to tell you this, but, they died.

I'd imagine pretty much everyone in the picture has died at some point in the last 90 years 🙂

The little girl in the background bought it when she fell out of the witches hat in the playpark behind the Kettering Sunset Retirement Home in 1996

Sorry for the daily mail link, but there's some great pics here:

good old daily mail - any excuse for an up-skirt photo

I read that DM link.. only they could make some fun pictures into an idiotic rant against nothing at all 🙁 I had to try not to read the text.

takisawa2 - Member
Imagine what their Black Runs were like...!!!

when you have a proper playground, you dont need that nonsense

Sorry for the daily mail link, but there's some great pics here:

I’m sorry but we don’t allow direct links to the Daily Mail on our website as we find it an abhorrent publication.

its been so long since ive tried a DM link, that i didnt know STW blocked them

good work

[i]We had a Witches Hat in the park near us[/i]

My big brother broke his leg on a Witches Hat. Trapped underneath it when it went down low. I can still hear the snap.

I tell ya, nowadays you can't even take photos of kids in the park without some nosey do-gooder coming over and telling you to move along an then threatening to call the police if you don't.

Imagine what their Black Runs were like...!!!
when you have a proper playground, you dont need that nonsense

No, cos everyone's too crippled from dangerous playground equippment.

Wicksteed park! Used to go there as a kid. I'd love a go on those. We compensated for rubbish swings with dangerous rope swings on steep sided woodland.

The ladders are surely so you can get down when you attempt to loop the swings and don't make it.

These spinning see-saw things are pretty good in the 21st century damage stakes - plenty of opportunity to get flipped if you're boarding, flung if you're riding or battered if you're pushing - Probably due for a government banning. Still not quite up to standards of the OP though.

[img] [/img]

The kid on the monkey bars looks like he's just done a couple of minutes in a George Formby grill.

Kids were so much harder back in the day. I bet if I shoved my lad in a waffle iron he'd only last 10 seconds.

Jeebus...don't let hora see this thread, he'll explode!

Im old enough to remember swings like that. Also really tall slides that you could polish up so that the terminal velocity on departing the end of the slide could be shattering, of major limbs.

Also really tall slides that you could polish up

"Fond" memories of my very first burst lip as a child.....

I'm sure that wearing polyester trousers helped with slide speed.

Im old enough to remember swings like that. Also really tall slides that you could polish up so that the terminal velocity on departing the end of the slide could be shattering, of major limbs.

...rrrrr the smell of burnt flesh on a boiling hot day on a metal slide...

My two year old went down a slide in the snow, where the end of the slide was the same height as the snow. I could see a very long packed polished section of snow at the bottom.. but I didn't say anything... hehehe 😈

[img] [/img]

The closest thing to a decently dangerous ride in my neck of the woods is a contraption in a park near Bingley - centre on this pic. You basically sit two similar sized children on seats attached to ropes from the end of the horizontal beam, then twist the ropes by walking in one direction. When you let go, depending on how many twists you've put in it, one kid goes about 25ft in the air screaming, while the other one is propelled into the centre pole. Awesome.

There's a fantastic park near Chester called Crocky Trail.
Plenty of death-traps - mostly made from farming machinery and supplies.
Get in now before it gets closed down!
http://www.crockytrail.co.uk

It was quiet when we went (only us there) so I got to go on everything too. didn't dare go down the biggest (slightly over-vertical) slide though.

Ace place.

Did none of you make your own swings?

We had one which had a very long rope hanging from a huge Elm. The arc of the swing was enormous. You had to climb upon a six foot stone wall, leap onto the dangling section of the rope which was so heavy it threatened to pull you off the wall. It swung fairly high on the other side but to add to the thrill, it was over a twenty foot parapet.

No parental supervision, no health and safety. I don't remember anyone falling off it either.

Used to play on swings that big back when I was a little 'un!!! No rubber mat poncyness underneath them, just solid dirt - bang in the summer, splat in the winter 😆

The seats were removed in '85, replaced in '91 with crappy short ones and rubber mats. Re-replaced in '98 with stupidly short ones and more rubber matting. I can stand on the floor and grab the bar easily. I'm 5"5'.

We had one which had a very long rope hanging from a huge Elm.

Is that where your innate hatred of trees comes from mcmoonter? 😀

My Mum used to play there during WW2, She was always telling me of how high she could get those swings.

I was just going to mention the Crocky Trail. It's truly awesome. I've never come back from there without a minor injury.

It's not likley to get closed down AlexSimon, they've got insurance and everything now! (didn't used to when it was free, just some signs telling you there's no point in suing)

[img] [/img]

Proper playgrounds.
I am starting a action research project looking at play for teenagers in schools: pump tracks, BIG aparatus, boulders and caves, loose materials etc .
Should be good fun.

These spinning see-saw things are pretty good in the 21st century damage stakes - plenty of opportunity to get flipped if you're boarding, flung if you're riding or battered if you're pushing - Probably due for a government banning. Still not quite up to standards of the OP though.

step 1, drink a crate
step 2. arange empties in a circle round the perimiter
step 3, collect them up whilst onlookers keep the speed on the silly side of mental
step 4, if loosing there was always the option of bailing out and risking broken limbs on the worryingly close fence. but then your opponent would hit the ground with an even bigger thud as the tyre dug in !

the farmer that owns the crocky trail is a bit of a local legend, when it first started it was very light on safety...

tthew - Member

It's not likley to get closed down AlexSimon, they've got insurance and everything now! (didn't used to when it was free, just some signs telling you there's no point in suing)

marcus7 - Member

the farmer that owns the crocky trail is a bit of a local legend, when it first started it was very light on safety...

We built loads of 'Tarzers' the best being in High House woods which was on a high branch you had to climb a steep hill with it to get on and swung out on a huge arc. You also climd the tree then with the rope the drop onto to it for greater effect. We fell off loads but as it was over a swamp which we cleared of branches and rubble before building it you just went splat.

We went to Bedgebury Forest over the summer.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/bedgebury

The adventure play areas were very good for my kids (3 and 5) as there was just the right balance of safety and thrill. Well worth a look if you are in that part of the world.

Great stuff from the past and Crocky Trail looks amazing.

Wicksteed went on to manufacture all that stuff - still do.

Some of the 60's kit I grew up using was pretty lethal.

Witches Hat certainly claimed a few broken bones but the daddy of them all was this supersized swing thing with an A frame at either end. It could take c 10 kids - 2 x big lads working it up to speed at either end and 8 terrified 'passengers' on cast iron bum shaped seats in the middle. Only a wee bar to hold on to. Everyone used to fly off the seats when this thing hit the stops at either end. Once you were on there was no getting off til the pair at either end got bored. Great fun...

Saw this thread and had to set myself off googling pictures of them Really Tall Slides you used to get and came across this sadly closed place in the States.
http://www.domainofdeath3.com/actionpark/