We boys would play polo on our bicycles on the village green. We did have fun even though we knocked a few spokes out at times.
 
Children played similar games in the 1930s to those of today, but in those days the toys differed especially concerning the material they were made of. Soldiers were made of lead, train sets were generally of tin-plate, which could usually be repaired fairly easily.
 
One toy of which I was very fond, was a 'Frog' aeroplane made of aluminiun and paper. The main plane had bent and lapped joints, as there was no way then to solder aluminium; the wings and tail plane were made of paper. It was powered by elastic which drove a geared-up propeller which could be wound up by hand or by a handle-operated gear box built into the box in which it was stowed. This aeroplane could take off from a plank of wood or any smooth surface in about 6 to 10 feet and fly for some 10 to 30 seconds duration.
 
During summer evenings cricket would be played on a strip of the common out side of Berrywood which was cut and rolled by the boys. Hours of fun was spent playing even the grown-ups joined in and as many as a dozen of us could be playing at any one time.
 
One way I would spend my time was to take my 410 twin barrelled shot-gun and wander round the hedgerows and stalk rabbits or perhaps take the dog with me and hunt them. When I was a little boy my father and I were walking over a grass field when suddenly I fell on a tufted piece of grass and caught a rabbit, which was just sitting in it. I hated the idea of killing it, so he said, "I will put it in this sack and if it is still alive when we get to that gate I will let it go". Well, it had died of fright, and he went on to say animals were in the world for man to use as food and other uses and from then on I thought of it in this light.
 
I was very interested to see how animals and birds gave a warning of danger, the rabbit stamping its hind legs and the birds with their shrill or chatter, like that of a blackbird. The rabbit would give itself away by standing upright on its hind legs in the field and this enabled one to see it and it made a better target. On more than one occasion when it was getting dusk I have shot at dock leaves, thinking it was a rabbit. With cartridges at 5/- a box it was not the thing to do. I shot rabbits to get some pocket money. I would get 6d. at the butchers in Midhurst, and 2d. for the skin from the Gypsies if it was in good condition.
 
At harvest time when we were cutting the corn, it was fun standing by the edge of the corn watching for rabbits or hares to pop out at anytime as the tractor and binder went round and round, but towards the end when only a small strip was left the rabbits ran out quickly in all directions. I recall when as many as 35 were caught in the space of 5 or 10 minutes, the dog caught many but some just gave up or died of fright.
 
On Boxing Day it was the farmer's custom to organise a ferreting day with the neighbouring farmers. Land -workers with ferrets, dogs, guns, nets and spades would go off for the day to many large burrows, lay the nets over the rabbit holes then put a female ferret in the hole. The dogs would sit quietly beside their masters whos guns were loaded and ready just in case a rabbit got by a net or had escaped from a bolt hole that had not been found. On some occasions the ferret trapped rabbits in a burrow which did not have an exit; the ferret would then not come out and attack and may even eat it.

 
If this happened you get a ferret of the oposite sex, put a collar on and attached a stout cord to it and let it into the hole where you last saw the other one. This one would seek out the other ferret and stay with it. Now you would start digging along the cord until the ferrets were reached, and subsequently the trapped rabbit or rabbits. I have known as many as three or four be caught at once. On rare occasions one lost a ferret and when a day or so later you returned you might, if you were lucky, catch it again. I have known one to be recaptured after a week.
 
There were many warrens on Berrywood farm where this could be done, one near Larkins barn, and another place was at the first steep rise at the double hedge. The best way to get a rabbit for dinner was to take a gun and dog and get the dog to turn one out and to shoot it. If the dog was too close to the rabbit you were unable to shoot it for fear of hitting the dog, so the rabbit escaped.
 
Tame rabbits were a form of pocket money to a boy. My brother John and I 'wired-in' the orchard with chicken wire let into the ground to a depth of one foot and sheep wire up to six foot high. In with the rabbits were chickens and their coops, which the rabbits burrowed and made their homes. We had some 30 to 40 at one time and father would take some of them to market and sell them for us. One bad winter the rabbits started eating the bark off the fruit trees and one day he took all the rabbits to market whilst we were both at school. One consolation from the sale, was a lot of extra pocket money.
 
Grey squirrels were another source of pocket money, being a pest, the Forestry Commission paid 1/- for each tail. We did reasonably well at this.
 
On occasions during the winter the local game-keepers and friends of Lord Cowdray with important visitors, came to the farms in Heyshott to game shoot. I remember having been paid as a beater for the day.
 
It was in 1937/38 that mail would be picked up by an aircraft flying low at Ambersham, the next village north. The aircraft was a Lysander and the mailbag was suspended between two posts. The plane, which had a hook underneath, snatched it up and flew away with it.
 
At the Cobden Club we had a set of hand bells which we practised playing tunes and some Christmas carols. It was quite difficult to do, but the sound was lovely and we all enjoyed ourselves.