"Soapbox trolleys were all the rage in the village, and although they were never made of soap boxes they were always so called. The construction was quite simple - a set of old pram wheels on a wooden frame and steered by having the front set of wheels mounted on a piece of wood which was pivoted at right angles to the main frame. The whole thing was operated by lying on one's stomach over the contraption and steering it by holding the front axle-plank. The bearings were lovingly greased to provide maximum efficiency and since the village was built on the sides of a hill, the main street (actually called Main Street) provided a very good, but retrospectively thinking, very dangerous, racecourse."
"Pram wheels were very much a prime trading commodity and we would scour the neighbourhood salvaging old prams. When I see the glass-fibre and plastic carts and cars for children today, I sometimes wonder whether they get the same pleasure as we did when we free-wheeled at sometimes great uncontrollable speeds down the side of a hill. I was the proud owner of one of the few trolleys with a crude attempt at a brake - mostly the braking system depended on scraping the ground with a shoe and rolling off quickly in an emergency."
