DIANE DUGUID has lived in Long Island, New York, for 50 years but she was born and raised in Bradford.

Diane keeps up to date with Bradford news on the Telegraph & Argus website and was inspired by a recent report we ran on Channel 4 asking Bradford people to share stories of their everyday lives.

The channel has commissioned artist Martin Firrell for a project called Out of the Ordinary, featuring the stories of people who live or work in Bradford and Leeds, new home of Channel 4’s national headquarters. Martin, who uses digital billboards, cinema screens, newspapers, and video interviews in his work, plans to record a series of short clips which he will build into a mosaic of films.

Diane Duguid, nee Rudd, was inspired to share with us her story of growing up in Great Horton:

First, as a young girl, we all had to separate as children because quite a lot of the kids got Chickenpox. It wasn’t good, not being able to play with your friends.

We used to roller skate up and down Westcroft road, and then we all had stilts. We always played in St John’s churchyard too, among the gravestones, playing hide and seek. Or we would go into Melrose Street and have picnics in the graveyard behind those homes.

We all had tents, which were made up of a clothes horses with an old sheet over it. The girls decided we all wanted long skirts, so we used to sew the T&A together with thread and walk up and down the streets.

Those were the days, when no one locked the door. We made friends with all the pigeons that came down into the street and gave them so much old bread. On Southfield Lane was the fish and chip shop that everyone went to on Fridays, and a bakery that sold penny brown loaves. We would get ice cream in a bowl and run home with it, with Cadbury flakes to dip in it.

The kids today have no idea what we did as children, but we enjoyed our life. The rag and bone man came every week, and the people would pick up the horse droppings for their gardens. Phew, that was awful!

We never ailed anything, and we couldn’t wait for the summer holidays so we could go out and do things. We would walk to Lidget Green and watch the trains come into Great Horton station and play in Brackenhill Park. Those were the days.

And collecting old furniture for Bonfire Night was what we all did. Roast potatoes on the bonfire, they never roasted properly, but we were happy.

This is how we grew up and we never argued or got into fights. We moved when I was a teenager to Clayton Heights and from there I came to the United States. I love coming ‘home’ to see family and friends from Great Horton. Would I live it all over again? Absolutely.

* The deadline for contributions to the Channel 4 project is April 15. For details go to martin.firrell.com

Emma Clayton