Lovely to share your memories, John. The clinic at the bottom of (what we called) The Hill was where the school dentist tortured. What years were you at Pendragon School?
I certainly do remember when the council workers came to trim the privet hedges. I have always associated the smell of privet with Downham and have a privet bush outside the front fence here in Oz. When it flowers, I am immediately transported back to childhood.
That's right, the council undertook to redecorate regularly and if something such as a windowpane needed new putty, we'd have to go round to the council offices/yard to put in a request for repairs.
I remember the playcentre at Ballamore School. My mother sent me there during one school holidays when she was working but I was an anxious child and didn't like it at all.
My mother was, for a time, a dinner lady at Ballamore School. I hated school dinners and Mum once ticked a teacher off for trying to force me to eat lumpy custard and making me retch.
Look forward to more of your memories.
Bren