I see now another glaring typo..

should have read "at least I benefited from a proper semi rural childhood, but we were probably the last UK generation to do so"

Jon - I was born in 1958.

My mrs is just a bit younger than you, she grew up on a bleak hillside with miles of nothing else much around her small village in South Wales..
But enjoyed a similar 'real' adventurous outdoors childhood as us...