As part of her teacher training, Sandra Bowden (nee Fray) observed how children used the facilities in Milehouse playground and this is an extract from her report in 1967:
“There had been little activity in the immediate area of the boating ponds until the arrival of smartly dressed boy twins, aged about six, riding identical green scooters. Timothy and Brian began to ride their scooters through the pond, fascinated by the waves they made and Timothy shouted, ‘let’s go to the deep end!’ At this point they were interrupted by the arrival of the Park Keeper who (unusually!) gently told them to remove their scooters. This source of amusement being prohibited, they abandoned their scooters and began to play with other children’s boats. By now, a group of about six boys had assembled centred around the twins. The young twins were clearly the most inventive of the boys present, as they collected discarded lollipop sticks and proceeded to weave them together to form a simple raft……
“The twins were, however, more interested in the other boy’s red self-powered boat which became the subject of their conversation. The twins were far more articulate than the older boys and dominated the conversation; talking to each other and to the other boys. They showed an awareness of current events by telling others about the ‘Torrey Canyon’ and the oil pollution and said, ‘Daddy is going to bomb it again today.’ This may have been an invention to strengthen their position as centre of attraction or fact, as one of the pilots engaged in bombing the tanker came from Plymouth.
“Brian became tired of the activity of the group and made for the roundabout………
“Meanwhile Tim had been playing with the original group. These boys were older than he and looked as if they came from poorer homes – their clothes were rather dirty and large. Tim continued to dominate the conversation and tended to supervise the activity. The older boys were content to let him do this – their conversation being limited to monosyllabic comments. When the eldest boy’s boat ran out of power in the centre of the pond, Tim not only told them how to retrieve it, but gave a practical demonstration of the method.”