The Swing Boats Ride Nbsp On The Riverbank

A Memory of Stourport-on-Severn.

Looking back now I think I must have been terrified when my dad took my sister and I on the swing boats which swung out so far you could see the water of the river underneath you. As you pulled the rope harder the boat would go higher. It was a regular "treat" each Sunday when my dad would take us on the Midland red bus from Wolverhampton to see my grandparents who lived in a little cottage by a public house called the Dog and Gun. My garndfather grew all his own vegetables and had a well in the garden where we would pump water from, and my grandma had fresh milk in jugs which stood on a stone flagged floor in buckets of water to keep the milk cool (no such luxury as a refrigerator). I loved just being there and I'm so glad I have these special memories.
While we were there we would also visit my aunt and uncle who lived in Arley Kings in a lovely white painted cottage with a beautiful back garden, which seemed to go on for ever, and a swing tied into a huge tree that my sister and I played on for hours. After lunch we would all go down to the funfair by the river and go on the "scary" swing boats and then walk down to the river by the way of a very spiral set of steps from the bridge to where the boats were that took you for a ride down the river and back again. At the end of the day my dad would take us for a glass of lemonade and a packet of Smiths crisps at the little pub called the Squirrel which was right where the Midland red bus  stopped to pick us up for our journey home. Does anyone else have a special memory of the swing boats?

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