Roger (pictured smiling) emailed his memories to us as he doesn’t live in Derby anymore. Huge thanks to him for his interview and for letting us use his family pics. If you would like to share a memory by email contact us reppinendzderby@gmail.com.

I lived on Park Grove in Derby from the age of two in 1954 to twelve in 1964. Our house must have been about half way between Markeaton Park and Darley Park. Trips to the park were with our parents, but this was well before the inner ring road was and there was very little traffic on Kedleston Road and Queensway so we were sometimes allowed to walk to Markeaton Park on our own. We preferred it to Darley Park as it was flat and much better suited to football and cricket.

To the north of the park, along Kedleston Road, was woodland and a branch of Markeaton Brook with sticklebacks, tiny fish that could be caught in a net and kept in a jam jar. This was a great place to play as it was wilder and more exciting that the rest of the park.

There were also some small brick buildings left over from when the army had occupied the park during the war. They were dark, damp and windowless – and rather frightening.

Markeaton Hall was still standing in the fifties but it was all shut up. It was later demolished just leaving the Orangery which, I think, was used as a café. This was the ‘posh’ area of the park…