RETRO: Street play and schooldays in Doncaster..

These photos stir memories among readers, all featuring Doncastrians, and kindly supplied by Jim Northmore of Bessacarr, in response to our appeal for your old photographs.

The first is a snapshot of children, including a young Jim Northmore (top right), in the Welfare Road area of Woodlands in 1940.

This is where Jim grew up, and he remembers the photograph being taken on a Sunday, after he returned from a visit to see family. He is second from right on the front row.

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He said: “We all used to play out on the street in those days...football, or tig, anything we could think of. But Third Avenue was a cul-de-sac and there wasn’t the traffic about then. Everyone played out until we were shouted in.”

Jim, who is a volunteer for the Alzheimers Society, added: “We have an Alzheimers Cafe every month in Woodlands and I was there recently. I couldn’t believe how much the place had changed.”

The bottom photograph is of the Football 1st Eleven at the Percy Jackson Grammar School, Adwick-le-Street in 1944.

Jack Firth, pictured bottom right, was a very talented local footballer and in Jim’s opinion, “should have played for England”. it was the late Mr Firth’s widow, Angela, who gave Jim the photograph.

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To get in the grammar school Jim recalls having to sit a County Minor Scholarship. Later, to obtain his ‘School Certificate’ it was necessary to achieve passes in English Language and five other subjects.

A school reunion in 2007 attracted many former pupils, said Jim, but few from his year.

The final photograph here shows Jim (far right) with friends on a trip to Cleethorpes, following dismissal from National Service in 1950.

q If you have photographs to share with readers, bring them along to our next public drop-in on February 2 from 1-5pm in Cast Theatre cafe. Or email [email protected] address.