Tell us about the memories of your home town (then and now) for a chance to win great prizes courtesy of Penguin Random House.

[RachelMumsnet]

Do you live in the town you grew up in? Or if not, do you still go back and visit? Penguin Random House are celebrating the publication of No.1 bestselling author Lesley Pearse’s latest novel, Without A Trace, and would like you to tell us about your home town past and present. How was it when you were growing up and what is it like now? We’d love to see pictures of how it has changed (if at all) and want to hear your thoughts on the good and the bad of today and the town of your youth.

Join the discussion or upload an image and you’ll be entered into a competition to win one of five SIGNED copies of Without a Trace. The overall winner will also receive a fantastic collection of Penguin goodies – including the new novel, a couple of Lesley’s previous novels, a cookery book and Penguin merchandise (e.g. Penguin notebook, Penguin mug, tote bag). This competition is open until midday, 8 June.

Lesley Pearse’s first novel was published when she was forty-nine and she has since become an internationally bestselling author, with over seven million copies of her books sold worldwide.
Without a Trace is a brilliant new dramatic novel from Lesley, set during 1953 on Coronation Day. It follows a young woman, Molly, as she tries to uncover the mysterious past of her departed friend, taking the reader on a perilous journey through London Soho, the East End and the rural villages of Somerset and Devon.

This competition is now closed. Winners will be announced shortly.

How the world has changed, since the dawn of the space age, back in the 1950s. I don't live in my Town of birth, but visit it frequently, I have family & friends there. As a child,my memories go back to 51/52. The town back then was much the same layout as it was when my Father was a boy in 1912, Working farms employed lots of local people, there were several very large Engineering works, two or three Founderies ,Joinery works,Cabinet Makers, Clothing Mills, There were five separate Hospitals,before they were all amalgamated ,we had the Somerset & Dorset Railway Terminus,that employed many,myself included in the 1960s, until Dr Beeching shut down our Railways. Every Wednesday was Market day, produce & every type of livestock was available for food, it was great to be taken there to see the Cattle, Goats, sheep,Rabits, Chickens etc, butchers shops were full of Game. The town had lots of Roman history, boys at school would swap Roman Coins, that were found everywhere back then, we often put them in the old Gas & Electricity meters, when cash was short. Places we would play,changed from beautiful meadows filled with wild flowers & wildlife, where every butterfly & moth could be spotted in such areas, to Concreted over ugly factories,car parks. The population in the early 50s was around 50,000, it's now over 200,000. The 60s saw a new thing called Tourism come to town. Cheap imitation stone was used to build large housing sites in every space that could be built on. In my lifetime, the town has been completely re modelled twice. The once treasured homes that had been bombed in the war were bulldozed away, roads re routed or done away with, & horrible new terraced houses stacked on top of each other,prices soared so high , local people found it hard to afford to live in their home town, & moved to surrounding Rural Towns in their droves. The factories all closed down, the lifeblood was gone, new homes for the rich & famouse now take their place. If you get outside of the City, Old childhood memories & places can still be enjoyed, away from the places tourists go to, I know of ancient woodlands & meadows that have never had fertiliser spread over them, & Cowslips, Primroses, & Orchids grow to this day.

Lesley Pearce is my favourite author .

I was brought up in a beautiful rural village in Nithsdale, Dumfries and Galloway. My childhood memories are so nostalgic of entire days walking in the vast woodlands with our dog in tow winter and summer alike, and spending the summer holidays trying to catch minnows in jam jars and getting sun burned. My family still live there and I enjoy visiting weekly with my children in tow. Where once it was a fairly quiet through road that echoed our neighbours chatting at the door step and one particular gentleman who would sit outside with his accordion playing old ceilidh songs, its now a very busy main road that separates the village in two. A lot of the old cottages have been sold to people from all areas of the world as holiday homes and even studios. While i believe its lovely to meet new neighbours there is no sense of community anymore. Nobody checks on the person next door to see if they are ok. I was brought up to look and see if everyone's chimneys were smoking in the mornings and if they were not we went to see if they were well enough. I still teach my children about flora and fauna, why we should look after our countryside. I have took them out on country walks since they could toddle and I truly hope it is something they would pass on to their children when the time comes.

I grew up in Doncaster and we lived over the road from my Grandparents house, which was great because I loved to be able to go and visit them whenever I wanted.

Our end of the street was the best bit because the top bit had a bus route on it, but it turned off before it reached our part.

This was the late 70's and early 80's, so not many people on the street even had a car so we were allowed to play out without anyone worrying we were about to be run over.

I can remember learning to ride my bike, learning to roller-skate, playing games like Tig and British Bulldogs, and nobody really bothered as long as we didn't make too much noise. There was always somebody outside to play with.

And at the top of the road was a park, which we loved. It was the biggest park in Doncaster and people used to come from all over to go to it. It had a boating lake, and a train you could ride on, and the playground was always full of people to play with. I can remember that our dog escaped once and made his way to the park. When my brother found him, the dog had been rolling on their compost heap and stank to high heaven. He loved the park as well.

In the summer they always had Tuby's fair and in the autumn they had fireworks for bonfire night. They had them on in island in the middle of the boating lake, which the ducks weren't really happy about. I used to love going to that, my grandparents would come with us so it was a real family thing, and it was exciting being out in the dark.

The boats and the train are gone now, but the park is still busy and very popular and now I take my own son to play there. They don't have fireworks anymore, but they have Proms in the Park and we go to that.

The street we lived on looks a bit different now, there are more driveways instead of front gardens, and not so many kids playing on the street.

I like to go back sometimes to have a look at the house we used to live in, and the one my grandparents lived in. They still look the same but also different, and it's a bit strange to have so many memories of a place I can't go inside anymore.

We also have a market in Doncaster that was famous in it's day. I can remember a toy stall at the indoor market that I loved as a child. It was a big treat to go there and choose a toy and I liked it more than I liked the 'proper' toy shop in what was the Arndale Centre at that time. It was in a fantastic old building, which we still haven't knocked down (quite an achievement in modern Doncaster because we've knocked almost everything else down) and you had to go down a staircase to find the stall. The stall hasn't been there for many years now sadly.

My Mum likes to tell the story of the Museum Bear, who was a live brown bear called Billy, who came to Doncaster when she was little. He was a very popular attraction apparently and when he died they had him stuffed and kept him in the museum so people could still visit him.

They still have a stuffed bear on display, but I don't think it's Billy. It makes a growling noise when you walk passed it and my son likes to run away from it.

And the only live bears in town live at the local wildlife park, polar bears called Victor and Pixel. We love to visit, I wish the zoo had been here when I was a child.

When I got married we moved away from Doncaster for a few years, but we moved back a few years ago and I'm glad. It's not the most beautiful town (except to me) because as I said, we like to knock things down, but it does have some beautiful parts, including the woodland right opposite my house. I used to walk there with my parents and grandparents and now I walk there with my son.

I love my hometown. It's home. I have lifelong friends here, and family, and memories of some great times and places growing up here. It's where my children were born and where we've had some of the best (and sadly worst) moments, and I can't see us moving away again in a hurry.

My home town hasn't changed that much though I haven't been back for a few years. Some new houses have gone up, a few of the shops have changed and some of the shops we regularly used as kids have gone altogether. One of the things I loved the most was the way all the kids were in and out of everyone's houses, playing in the alley together and only a short walk to school - along with the library, the woods and the park, school was one of my favourite places to go. I've spoken to people that still live in the area and they bemoan that neighbours don't even know each other let alone share babysitting, meals, street parties, bonfire night parties etc like we used to. I now live not that far away, in the same county, and when reading Shelia Hancock's book 'Miss Carter's War' recently enjoyed reading more about the area I live in now. Fingers crossed as I would love to win this prize. Very interesting reading other people's comments/memories.

I spent my summer holidays and Christmas in Bexhill-on-Sea with my grandmother and my family. Happy days playing with my cousins on the beach and picnics in the local countryside. My husband and myself now have a holiday flat in Bexhill. So we frequent the old haunts as do our grandchildren and children. It is still a lovely place to stay and visit. Not a lot has changed. Bexhill is in a time warp and I love it!!

I live in the town I grew up in. I moved away but came back so I was nearer my mam so she could help with childcare. My two eldest children even go to the primary school that me and my sister went to, although this year has seen that old building knocked down and a brand new shiney super school built on what used to be the play ground and sports field!
Not that much else has changed apart from a few flats and houses being knocked down for car parks or new houses. When I was younger there used to be a cinema that looked like it was out of the 1950s inside that we used to call the flea Pitt! This is now a funeral parlour, people here are the same just a new generation of them. When I was young we would be standing round drinking cider n hooch but the young these days are standing round with rock stars and other energy drinks which is probably a a sign of the times.