How far would this be?

[Roobarb]

On second thoughts it can't be Red Barns, the road in front of the building goes downhill. The only sign I can think of with a black and white pole is a Belisha beacon but there's no ball on the one in the photo. I did wonder if it's a level crossing barrier which has a red and white pole. 

[Rena]

If you are talking about a total distance of 40 miles, and an average speed walking of 4 (?) miles an hour, and cycling on a fairy bicycle of 6 (?) miles an hour, that gives you a travelling time of 7+ hours ?
Plus time spent at seaside.
You would be done for child cruelty and total neglect nowadays.

None of us walked to the seaside.  In those days of mainly horse and carts the country lanes were empty of traffic and we rode 3 abreast, my brother and I at either side of the youngster so that we could push him but we did expect him to help by pedalling poor little thing.  Although at 6ft 4 ins he's not so little now.

As for very young children walking - it was a weekly event for us to skip and walk the 2.1/2 miles into the town centre with our mother and like other families we caught the bus home.

[LizzieW]

In the mid 1970s we were living in Gloucestershire and had just sold our house and were buying another one 11+ miles away, by the most direct route.  One day my boys, aged 11, 8, and 5 went out on their bikes.  They were out for hours - in those days you didn't worry as much as parents do today.  When they got back I asked them where they'd been - yes, they'd cycled from Dursley to Stroud and back again to see our new house and as they didn't know the way they went the scenic and hilly route, up through Uley to Nympsfield, up to Woodchester, to Amberley, then Thrupp and eventually to our new house on London Road, Stroud. I don't know how the 5 year old managed it on his little fairy cycle.   (Do you remember those little bicycles?)

Just realised the smilies are Santa smilies - are they new today or have I been asleep?

[Ceeoh]

It could well have been a red and white pole, cannot make out what the object is at the top of it.  Rena -seems pedal car pedalling made the leg bones long - hubby turned out to be 6ft 5 ins!  I have tried zooming in on the photo but it doesn't show any clearer detail.  If the structure at the back was for swings, there are none attached - what other use could it have?
Will try and post it on Redcar Forum later, there is a member very familiar with Redcar and surrounds - he may be able to help.

Ceeoh

[genjen]

I think the only unfeasible thing about the distance for a child is that the pedal car would have been pretty cumbersome and slow. Distances back then weren't the same as distances now - or so it would seem!!
I was certainly romping around the Eston Hills at a very early age, with only a slightly older child for company. I was apparently "missing from home" for several hours and got into horrible trouble when I got back. I was five - how was I to know that my mother would be worried out of her wits?

My own daughters were climbing the Lake District fells by the age of four. Maybe that would be classed as child cruelty now, though it doesn't seem to have done them any lasting harm. Quite the reverse, I'd say!