Did you ever get lost in a maze of council houses?

The urban concrete jungles around the United Kingdom offer the growing population a place of start. They host a tight communal residence for many types of amazing people across the country. The hard working class citizens, benefit seekers, single parents, extremely large family’s, ethnic minorities, asylum seekers and gypsies are a few strong examples. Every row or green* of houses has a different crazy story to tell. Everyone knows many of the families in the street. “That’s just the council estate way”.

*(Row of terraced houses facing each other with a small patch of grass for the children to play on.)

The aspiring youth of the late 20th century had to make do with imaginative games. Some got out of hand while others took great skill and concentration. If you wanted to fit in and be part of a ten or twenty strong crew, you definitely would have been asked to participate in some of the following dark activities.

Cherry Knocking aka Knock Down Ginger

Did you ever go to the front door after a loud knock only to find nobody was there? Then it’s possible you could have fallen victim to a cherry knocker. This classic game of knock and run produced massive amounts of adrenaline in any young kid. The more knocks a person achieved on a row of houses the higher the reputation grew among the clang of knockers.

The boring winter nights resorted to the extreme cherries. Fear was not in some knockers dictionary. Balls of twine (strong string) would be used to tie up door handles inter-linking and connecting rows or greens of houses. When the final door was tied everyone knocking would get a door. After a few seconds of compulsive laughter all the doors tied would get banged or knocked.

A quick escape would have kids diving into bushes, jumping over walls, hiding in dustbin cupboards or just running for shear life. The pain of laughter would come when adults would try and open their front doors; only to find they had a serious problem on their hands. The grown ups would have to walk through the back gardens with a pair of scissors to cut away the twine.

You would always hear “Them fu@*ing kids are at it again”

Many forms of these devious methods were thought up for shear cheap frills. The fishing wire tied to one door and slowly unravelled to the nearest bush also worked a treat. The poor person who kept answering the door to a knock from the kids hiding in the nearest bush didn’t have a clue what was going on.

Beat the Word

Any type of fighting, wrestling or good old beating is completely banned from any playground today. Some of the best friendships are made when two people knock lumps out of each other for ten minutes. The fighting gives you both a connection and pure understanding of each other’s feelings. ‘Beat the word’ was a very physical game. Two teams went head to head against each other. Team one would run away while team two would chase. The team running had to make up a word. The word didn’t matter as some people carried two or three letters to make up the word. When a person was finally caught they had the option to hold on to that letter in their mind for as long as possible. The only way to get into someone’s mind back in the day was to beat it out of him or her. That’s right! The girls got involved too.

What a great contact game for the growing youth. Sometimes blood would be exposed, tears, anger, screaming, shouting and kids walking home upset. Beat the letter was a war game of escape and evasion.

40/40

A tall concrete lamp-post was the point of command in this game of run and hide. After selecting the person to be on post, through means of a quick ‘out’ game, like, enie menie miny mo, or Dip! You shoe needs cleaning*.

The person on post had the job to defend it. Everyone else had to run off then make there way back without being detected. The individual on post could walk away to find a person but had to run back and touch the post to reveal there location.

You could always hear the triumphant sounds of some young person squealing “40/40  I see John in the bushes near door 363”.

*Dip! Your shoe needs cleaning was a great way to work out who was going to be nominated 1st to be on. Everyone would gather around the person singing the rhyme. You had to put your foot in a circle, each word from the song landed on a different foot in the circle. The last person left with a foot still in, was the person who had to be on first.

“Dip! Your shoe needs cleaning,
needs cleaning,
needs cleaning,
Dip! Your shoe needs cleaning,
so please change your foot”.

Sh**ty Letter

The most mischievous game on the estate had to be Sh@*ty letter. The idea behind this was to find a fresh Jobby aka, as fresh dog pooh. This would then be placed carefully in an envelope. When the coast was clear the nominated person would place it outside someone’s front door. That person would then set the envelope on fire. A quick bang on the door would lead to everyone to run and hide in a desired location.

An unexpected person would then open the front door to find a little fire outside there home. This unforeseen circumstance lead to an immediate reaction of stamping the thing out. The poor person was then left with a foot caked in a delightful present left by the local youth.

Hence forth, the sh@*ty letter game was born.

Chinese Football

This game was good for one thing only, tears and rather large bruises on both arms. This could be played with around five or sometimes twenty people. The idea was to pass the ball to a person in a circle. The ball could only bounce once. If you hit someone above the waist-line everyone owed that person a punch on the arm. You had three lives, The first punch was soft, the second was hard and the third, well! Let’s just say it put tears to your eyes. If you had to stand in the middle of a field and take twenty punches, some even from boys that were a lot older, it was only going to mean one thing. Tears!.

The only thing that stopped many a young man crying was the cute girl’s standing on the sideline. There was no room for emotion.

Hedge Hopping

When cherry knocking got boring, it was time for a game of hedge hoping. This was normally done a few estates down in the posh areas. Mainly because council houses don’t have hedges or fences in the front gardens. Boundaries were normally divided by means of a metal wire hanging out of a three-foot concrete stump.

When a row of suitable houses was found, many obstacles had to be avoided. Fences, hedges, cats, dogs, bins, flowerbeds, rose bushes and actual people chasing you with a slipper or a belt. When everyone had his or her positions, about ten kids would plough through gardens jumping over everything while trying to avoid capture from homeowners.  Sometime a person had time to take a quick glimpse through a window and would see a whole family sitting eating dinner or watching the television. All jaws would drop and little kids would point out the window. The sight of ten kids running through a front garden must have been unimaginable. Looking back after the last hedge many would have fallen or just couldn’t get over a fence or hedge. The fat kid with a little hole at the bottom of his T-shirt always got caught.

Chins

A great game among the late night street walkers. Two people would face each other and hold the other persons chin with their finger and thumb. You then had to squeeze as hard as you could. The first person to shout stop through sheer pain was the looser. Simple! But so much fun. There was always some kid walking about the next day with a thumb print bruised into their chin.

The School Roof

Every council estate kid had a compulsive urge to take a walk up to the school and get on the roof. Why! “No idea”. It was a place of chill, you had to be cool, with it, and part of crew to have been on the school roof. And why not? It was our school. We owned it. Many days were spent finding little corners and knowing every different way to get up on the thing. Sunbathing, picnics, and snogging was all part of the fun. The funny thing is non-of us ever got caught.

Run Out

This simple game was the most adventurous. Two teams of around six to seven people a side went up against the ultimate capture game. One team ran. The other team chased. Boundaries of the local estate were set. These normally escalated miles apart. Every kid knew the estates like the back of their hand. You needed too in order to survive this massive game. 

Everything you knew about street sense was a must. Hiding in bin presses, up trees, under bridges, people’s back gardens, shop roofs and garages were a few good locations. Even when spotted and the chase was on, teams would cherry knock, split up and do anything possible to avoid capture. Games would last for hours, come rain, snow, hail or ice. This great game gave the council estate youth preparation for anything physical life has to offer. Nothing got in the way of this great social event.

Related articles.

Council Estate slang.

Nuts about marbles.