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From the Reverend Kate Bottley:

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When we moved 18 months ago to the house we now call home, I confidently told my children, ‘It never snows in Retford.’ At the end of last week I found myself having to eat my own bobble hat. Snow up to our knees, roads impassable and the holy grail of every teenager, school closed until further notice.

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There was nothing else for it but to wrap up warm get to the park for snow day shenanigans. We found gloves and scarves and wellies, that barely still fitted and I went off to the garage to look for another bit of essential wintry kit. My sledge. Tucked away in a corner, cobweb covered, waiting for its moment. You see over the years we have destroyed various plastic toboggans but my sledge is different, my sledge has seen off those plastic imposters and has stayed the course.

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My Dad made it for me on a quiet night shift at the factory where he used to work. A wooden seat and a solid welded metal frame, it’s built like a tank and goes like the clappers. And it didn’t let us down. After the teenagers had nearly taken out a couple of toddlers on the maiden run on the nursery slopes, I had a go, Graham had a go and it was like the old days, when my Dad took me out to the biggest hill and I had the best sledge going.

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The bible has nothing to say about sledging but much to say about the importance of the stuff we pass onto the next generation, not sledges but treasure of a different sort, the sharing of wisdom and the value of good teaching, the book of proverbs says ‘Train up a child in the way he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it.’ Reminding us that a solid frame provides a lasting legacy.

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And now my sledge is no longer just my sledge, it’s my kids sledge too and in time, who knows maybe it’ll end up being my grandkids sledge as well, passed down like a treasure from one generation to the next, gathering stories of snowy fun with every passing passenger. I just hope it won’t be too long before it gets it’s next outing.