IT WAS just a load of old wood – until someone decided to knock a few nails in. A bit of imagination and a derelict field became an adventure playground for children at Slade Park in Headington, Oxford.

Health and safety officials would probably take one look at it today and order its immediate demolition.

But in 1970, when this picture was taken, there were different standards. Children happily clambered aboard and were soon testing out the high points, without too much regard to a possible fall.

The playground was the work of the Woodlands Adventure Playground Association.

It was run during the school summer holidays by a team of 26 international volunteers from many different countries.

More than 100 children turned up at the playground on the first day and they showed as much interest in their foreign hosts as they did in the equipment.

One 10-year-old with a keen ear was heard to ask: “Mister, why is that man Italian and speaking French?”

The picture revives memories of earlier times when this area of Oxford housed a wartime Army camp.

After the war, the former Army huts off Horspath Driftway and The Slade were used to provide much needed housing for dozens of families.

In 2011 and 2012, Memory Lane readers wrote in to say how much they had enjoyed life in the huts, despite somewhat primitive conditions.

Jean Jeffs, of Sandford-on-Thames, sparked the lively response after she appealed to fellow former residents for their memories.

She was just three when she moved into her hut with her parents, Roland and Joyce Robinson, and sister Margaret in 1950. They lived there for 18 months while Wood Farm estate was being built.

Mrs Jeffs later recalled: “I remember entering the camp from an entrance opposite the Corner House pub – the first huts as you came in had verandahs – then walking up the concrete roads called avenues. “I remember playing in the woods and enjoying walks to Shotover with my parents and sister. My late mother always said how lively it was living there.” From the picture, it is clear a later generation enjoyed life there too. Do you recognise yourself or anyone else on the wooden contraption? Write and let me know.