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Palace Theater opened 1896 - now flats.

When we were kids we spent hours in the spring catching toads from the 'A' pit pond(s). We didn't do anything with them, we caught them because we could. I remember there was competition to see who could catch the most. We put them back when we were hungry and went home for something to eat. We were never challenged by any blokes for being there. Every year my uncle wanted one in the spring for his greenhouse to catch the slugs that appeared overnight and the odd insect during the day. The toad he got that had fed well over the summer disappeared early winter. It didn't reappear the next spring. Did it get the urge to breed and dig its way out or escape through the open door, I wonder. We never caught any frogs in the pond and we didn't see any frogspawn, only the long strings of toad spawn. Frogs mustn't have liked the water taste or there wasn't any food there for them.