Whether you grew up during the 1950s or you’re an 80s kid from Greater Manchester, the way children play, learn and live has altered almost beyond recognition.
Before games consoles and social media, playing out in the street was how we spent their time after school and the summer holidays used to feel like an endless series of small adventures.
Taken from our archives, Mirrorpix, these images capture children at play in Greater Manchester from as early as the 1940s.
Some show children enjoying the Belle Vue Zoo, or playing football on the streets and playing in the snow.
Others capture youngsters meeting the likes of The Bee Gees, Coronation Street stars, footballer George Best and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Here are 38 photos that look back to childhoods past in Greater Manchester:
Fun in the snow. Ten-month-old Susan Torkington, of Regent Road, Stockport, gets a tow on the snow-clad slopes of Lyme Park, Disley, Cheshire, from her three-year-old sister Linda. January 1960
Manchester Olympic Bid for the 1996 Games, September 1990. The leaders of the city’s bid effort are about to set off for Tokyo where the final decision is to be made. Chairman Bob Scott and director Rick Parry get an enthusiastic farewell from flag waving supporters in Albert Square. September 10, 1990
Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant) at the Corrie Christmas panto, December 1964
Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) joins the panto fun, Christmas 1964
The Hatton triplets from Manchester, Deborah, Sharon and Allison with the Quilty triplets, Anthony, Bernard and Frank, October 29, 1964
Youngsters play cricket in the puddles outside Old Trafford, July 1964
For the last few weeks pupils at the St Luke’s Primary School, Longsight, Manchester have been putting away threepence a week to go on a picnic with a difference, for this is a picnic in the snow. These kiddies never see proper snow because it soon gets dirty in the centre of the city, so the headmistress Miss Ethel Parkinson decided to organise this trip for them. January 17, 1959
Manchester school children dressed as snowflakes for their school’s pantomime. December 1982
Its great being circus kids for Carol aged 4 and Grace aged 2, daughters of clown Carlos McManus from Plymouth. For whilst mums away, Carlos gets the job of looking after the kids – and they can be a handful. Carol plays with daddy’s false nose and shows her sister Grace how well she can balance, for she hopes to be a circus artist herself when she grows up. They arrived in Manchester to take part in the Belle Vue Circus. December 1969
A little girl in a Manchester department store is upset by the doves in Santa’s Grotto when one lands on her head. December 1954
Two pupils of Ross Place School, Ardwick, Manchester, jump across a sea of mud to enter school. December 11, 1970
Prime Minister Winston Churchill sitting on the back of an open car on his surprise visit to Manchester during the Second World War, April 1941. Here he stops to share a joke on his way through Chorlton
Children continue to play games and enjoy adventures, even amongst the desolation caused by German Luftwaffe air raids in Manchester during the Second World War. June 25, 1943
Children learning from Terry Hall and Lenny the Lion, October 1969
Children from St Luke’s Primary School in Manchester are having a ball sledging and playing in a batch of freshly fallen snow. January 1959
Rochdale Canal at Ancoats in June 1971. Children paddle happily
Nicholas the hippo at Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester, Greater Manchester, is fed with a cake brought for him by some Birmingham children. June 1960
Caribbean Festival, Alexandra Park, Manchester. May 28, 1973
A group of young lads seen here in their neighbourhood before taking part in the Manchester Whit Walk parade. June 1960
Children playing football in Archie Street, Salford. Archie Street was the inspiration for Coronation Street. June 12, 1967
Children playing football in Archie Street, Salford
A visit to Belle Vue Zoo, Manchester with Topaz the chimp was part of the prize for these Cheshire schoolchildren, who collected over 50 tons of waste paper, which is made into “shred-a-bed” for the animals. November 30, 1976
Little Jane Weaver makes fast time on the ice at the frozen Lindow Common in Wilmslow, Cheshire
When 45 children from Wood Street Mission in Manchester were invited to take part in a Coronation Street pantomime they really had a ball. Philip Lowrie (aka Dennis Tanner) playing with the children’s toys. December 18, 1964
Children playing outside slum housing, Number Two Court, Dickenson Street, Oldham. June 1, 1962
The Bee Gees return home to Manchester November 1981. Pictured at their former school, Oswald Road Primary School, Chorlton. From left to right: Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb & Maurice Gibb
Some of the 180 pupils play in the small corridor at Sacred Heart RC school, Gorton, Manchester, the only place to use when rain stops them playing out. The teachers also have to use the corridor as a staff room for their tea break. December 1970
Salford, July 16, 1974
George Best enjoys a game of street cricket at his old digs on Aycliffe Avenue, Chorlton, May 1968
Children a prepare bonfire ahead of evening celebrations. November 5, 1962
Street football in Moss Side with the new university complex in the background, December 1973
Manchester’s Church of England Whit Monday walks. Angela Lane, aged 4, of St Matthew’s Mission, Manchester, yawns as she waits to make the walk from Albert Square, Manchester. June 3, 1963
Caribbean Festival, Alexandra Park, Manchester. May 28, 1973
Streamers and flags are waved by residents of this Manchester street when fifty children hold an open air victory party during VE Day celebrations to mark the Allied victory in Europe at the end of the Second World War, 8th May 1945. Cakes and sandwiches are on the menu and the waiters, including an evacuee mother from Shoreditch, wear Union Jack aprons
Slum housing in Salford. April 3, 1960
A game of footie at Archie Street, Salford. June 12, 1967
Children in a Manchester suburb warm themselves by a fire outside wrecked houses during World War II. March 13, 1941