Phil Gillam: Why I'll always champion Castlefields

This is where we kicked a football around in the back garden, this is where we played with our Matchbox cars and plastic soldiers, and this is where we watched Blue Peter, Animal Magic, Robinson Crusoe, Crackerjack, Top Cat, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Morcambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, The Banana Splits, The Goodies and Noel Edmonds' Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.

(Not that we were television addicts or anything).

But North Street was the centre of our universe, with Mr Brown's greengrocer's shop at the one end (the Queen Street end) and Mr Howard's general store at the other (the Water Street end). And half-way down the street – halfway between these two stores – was the imposing red sandstone citadel of All Saints Church.

Although the church is not that old in the great scheme of things (built in 1869) it always seemed absolutely ancient to us young boys – myself, my little brother, and my best friend in the whole world back then, Paul Rogers.

We were convinced it was haunted by the ghosts of medieval monks – even though Castlefields hadn't even been a twinkle in some developer's eyes in medieval times. The area would have been simply fields until streets started to be laid out in the mid-1800s.

You could pop into the church any time you fancied when we were lads, and during the school holidays, we would often go in there to take in the mystery and the history.

It was actually designed (in the Victorian Gothic style) by Edward Haycock who was also responsible for the fairly similar Holy Trinity churches in Belle Vue and Meole Brace.

I love All Saints because it was the first thing we saw as we stepped outside out house (we lived just across the road).

I love it because of happy memories of singing carols there in the run-up to Christmas.

I love it because it's where Paul Rogers and I used to ask God to give us super-powers so we could be like Batman and Superman and defeat all the bad guys.

Ah yes, dear old Castlefields.

And on this subject, I am indebted to a regular reader of this column, Gary Brown, who writes: "My Grandparents lived in North Street and when you talk about Mr Brown's shop he was my great uncle. Whenever Dad went to see him in the shop I would want to go just for the fabulous smell within the shop. I regularly spent a Sunday lunchtime with my grandparents. I have great memories of fishing by the weir with a bottle and a piece of string to catch minnows, or skimming stones off the beach a bit further on.

"After tea they would walk me home along the river under the English Bridge to Greyfiars, past Coleham School and the Masonic Pub, to Belle Vue where we lived at the time. Unfortunately they are long gone but I do wonder what they would make of the internet and all the modern technology when they had nothing but an outside toilet, and black and white TV. Every time I read your column it brings back fantastic memories and puts a smile on my face."

Thanks, Gary - a fellow champion of good old Castlefields!