Upon waking up from camping out, it was possible to get breakfast at the old tin canteen at Allanson Street School and at St Joseph's, Peasley Cross.

And as the urchin gang was split between the two schools, they'd gobble up a meal at one before legging it the mile or so to grab a second breakfast at the other.

Saturday morning was reserved for a cruise on the old sludge boat, up and down the Stinking Brook, ("a touch of the Huckleberry Finns"). It was left moored for the weekend by the workmen who normally crewed it.

Tiring of this, the gang would then head for the Chimics for a grand battle across the "canyon". Passing horses, pulling the variety of fruit and veg, coal and milk carts which were so abundant then, provided the steamy "ammunition".

"At such times we'd keep an eye peeled for the Lannies' gang from Langtree Street, as we were spilling over into their territory," says Ken.

Sunday lunch-time would find Ken and his pals near the "hop-across" - a pipe encased in concrete which spanned the old brook.

At one time this had been embedded with chunks of glass, long since knocked out by the local kids so that they could "tightrope" across it.

That was the base for the outdoor pitch and toss gamblers and card schools, then highly illegal activities and with offenders hotly pursued by the local bobby who was invariably thwarted by the warning cries from the gamblers' look-out.

Next stop was a bat spotting visit to a nearby tall derelict factory chimney before again taking the risk of crossing the Lannies' territory ..."to nick pea-shooters from Bishops" (a local glass tube manufacturer).

Those were hot-summer barefoot days when Buddy Jackman would peform his second "party trick" - walking the length of the street on his hands!

The Chimics and Licker took more than a decade to shift, says Ken. "Someone called Adam Lythgoe, with an army of lorries, moved the Licker and was said to have become a millionaire in the process, selling the vast amount of chemical lime as farm fertiliser."

He apparently got double payment, firstly for moving the stuff and then reaping a second financial reward from the farmers.

Most of the industrial scars - the tips, old mining workings and worked out factories have disappeared from the Parr scene. But Ken will never forget the excitement of scaling the heights of the Chimics and exploring the holes and fissures scored into them, all bearing romantic named such as "the big cave" and "the devil's crack". "To us it was like climbing a mountain" he recalls.

But the effort was worthwhile. "On top, the grass was incredibly green, like Conan Doyle's lost world and it was a place of refuge from the school board (attendance officer) who could be spotted on the housing estates far below.

"We knew he'd never consider scaling those heights to catch us."

The old factories which used to spew their waste into it have vanished and the rats and bats have been joined by a collection of other types of wildlife as pleasant grass cultivating and tree-planting schemes have healed over those industrial scars.

"As the brook has cleared," reports Ken, "there has been a return of the stickleback, roach, pike and eel while weasel, rabbit, fox, heron , mallard, water-hen and others have been spotted on the wooded part of the banks."

"It seems that things are turning full circle," muses Ken, "back to something like the glory it must once have enjoyed."

And as for that old grubby-kneed gang of 50 years ago..."Well," says Ken, "if they haven't got their bus passes by now, then they're certainly heading for one."