I HAVE been watching the Owen family in the Channel 5 programme “Our Yorkshire Farm”, which is filmed in upper Swaledale. What a lovely programme, and such well-mannered children – all nine of them. They are allowed to run freely although now the health and safety is butting in.

It takes me back to when I was a child, the oldest of ten children.

I grew up in a little village called Witton Park, near Bishop Auckland. Us older kids would go out first thing on a morning and we roamed all over the place, mostly the river and down the old iron works.

We came back when we were hungry, unless we had taken a bottle of water and jam sandwiches.

Thank God no health and safety then, just children with freedom and not a care in the world.

Most of us kids in Witton Park roamed all over the place and everyone looked out for each other, and when your mam called you in you could distinguish her voice from all the other mams calling their children.

Happy days.

Betty Scott, Crook.